Former UK defense secretary: 'Israel's' defense is our defense

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
21 Apr 2024 21:30

The new leader of the UK House's lower chamber says that Prime Minister Sunak must finance a national air defense system similar to the Israeli Iron Dome.

Britain's Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, (R), and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at 10 Downing Street in London, March 24, 2023 (UK Government)

The leader of the UK House of Commons lower chamber said on Sunday that the security of the Israeli occupation is that of Britains, proposing that Prime Minister Rishi Sunak increase military spending and consider financing the establishment of a national air defense system similar to "Israel's" Iron Dome.

Talking to The Sunday Telegraph, Penny Mordaunt said, "Israel’s defense is our defense, and we must be ready to defend our allies the same way that we would defend ourselves, as we did last weekend," she said referring to the military response against the occupation entity last Sunday.

The former Minister of State for the Armed Forces added: "To those that say about our defense ambitions ‘we can’t do, shouldn’t do or can’t afford to do’, I say ‘look to Israel’ – a nation a fraction of our size that has staved off an attack from a nation 10 times its size."

She insisted that, while Britain did not have "daily reminders of threats we face, but we have the same duty to our citizens."

Policing the Olympics

The former defense secretaries voiced her calls on Saturday, including former British air defense chief, who said that the United Kingdom's defenses had been “shrink-wrapped” around “very specific, limited and bounded tasks”.

Criticizing the current state of the country's military, Greg Bagwell said that said the UK now has a force that could professionally “police” an Olympics or deal with “a 9/11 scenario and even the odd Russian itinerant aircraft” but “not a concerted, conventional attack”.

Additionally, former First Sea Lord Admiral Lord West said: “The bottom line is that if we had 300 missiles fired at us, we wouldn’t be able to repel them in the way that Israel did, albeit with help from the US, the Jordanians and so on. We have nothing like the Iron Dome and I think there is a need for us to ensure we have that.”

Meanwhile, Lord Dannat, former chief of general staff added: “The only real air defense systems we have are the sort of air defense systems we would use to protect forces on operations overseas.

“We don’t have a comprehensive air defense system in the same way that we did in World War Two, in the same way, that we did in the Cold War – that has largely been dismantled. On that sort of basis, we are not terribly well prepared. The wider argument is that we should be investing more deeply in our defense budget overall.”