Former officials for US president Donald Trump have criticised the British government’s decision to announce the suspension of some arms sales to Israel.
Elliott Abrams, who served as special representative for Iran and Venezuela in the Trump administration, attacked the timing of the announcement.
The senior fellow for Middle Eastern studies at the Council on Foreign Relations said it: “did not have to be announced while murdered hostages were literally being buried, and one wonders what message is meant to be sent by the cold indifference of the timing.”
He continued: “As to the substance, it is reprehensible that HMG should choose to curtail its solidarity with a democracy under terrorist attack. The excuse offered by Mr. Lammy and others, that the operational effect of their restrictions on exports will be small, simply demonstrates that this is less a foreign policy or legal step than a political gift to the Labour left.”
Abrams, who also served as deputy national security adviser under President George W Bush, issued a note of caution: “The British government should also be aware of the message being sent here as all of Europe clamours for more co-production of US capabilities. Nations who use the supply chain for political purposes only increase the costs and risk of doing those projects at all.”
Dr Sebastian Gorka, a former deputy for strategy to Trump in the White House, described the government’s decision to suspend 30 of 350 arms export licenses to Israel, as “outrageous” and claimed that it would “have a damaging effect on relations between Downing Street and the White House should he be re-elected this November.”
Gorka, who described the Republican Party’s presidential candidate as the “most philo-semitic president since 1948 and the rebirth of Israel” told the JC that the former president wouldn’t mince his words with Sir Keir Starmer. Were he in office, he would tell the Prime Minister to “Choose a side: pro-Judeo-Christian civilisation, or its enemies.”
Dr Jan Halper-Hayes, a former member of Donald Trump’s 2016 transition team and an advisor to his 2020 presidential campaign, shared Gorka’s assessment of his likely frankness.
“If Trump were in office, we’d have a repeat of his blunt directness. As he disagreed with Theresa May on her handling of Brexit, Trump would be equally critical with Starmer,” she said, adding that Republicans “already have negative perception of Labour” but that “they are probably in shock about how woke Starmer is.”
Despite being a vocal critic of the former president while a backbencher, Foreign Secretary David Lammy had been trying to build relations with Trump’s vice-presidential candidate JD Vance. He told BBC Breakfast in July: “I’ve met him now on several occasions, we share a similar working-class backgrounds with addiction issues in our family.
"We’ve written books on that, we’ve talked about that, and we’re both Christians. So I think I can find common ground with JD Vance.”
The government’s decision to announce the suspension of some arms sales to Israel has reportedly also caused frustration within the Biden administration.
ITV’s Robert Peston claimed on social media that White House sources had expressed disappointment with the UK’s decision.
Yesterday, a spokesperson for the US State Department appeared to distance the Biden administration from the UK’s announcement, and told reporters: “The US is not going to make an assessment under the UK standard. We will make our determination based on US law.”
