{"id":328123,"date":"2025-08-08T14:48:12","date_gmt":"2025-08-08T14:48:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/328123\/"},"modified":"2025-08-08T14:48:12","modified_gmt":"2025-08-08T14:48:12","slug":"explained-impact-of-europe-halting-arms-supplies-to-israel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/328123\/","title":{"rendered":"Explained: Impact Of Europe Halting Arms Supplies To Israel"},"content":{"rendered":"

Israel<\/a> has just declared its intentions to expand its military offensive in Gaza<\/a>, despite the deepening humanitarian crisis <\/a>in the Palestinian<\/a> territory.<\/p>\n

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu<\/a> insists this is the only way to eradicate Hamas \u2013 but his words have sparked terror among European allies.<\/a><\/p>\n

Germany stopped all of its weapon exports<\/a> to Israel as a result of the announcement.<\/p>\n

The UK\u2019s prime minister Keir Starmer immediately<\/a> condemned Israel\u2019s plan, predicting it would just trigger more \u201cbloodshed,\u201d but is yet to halt the few military exports Britain still sends to Israel. <\/p>\n

Labour did impose a partial ban on arms<\/a> being sent to Israel last year, but critics have often claimed loopholes mean the remaining exports<\/a> are still being used in the offensive against Gaza.<\/p>\n

So Liberal Democrat <\/a>leader Ed Davey said the UK \u201cneeds to take decisive action\u201d, adding: \u201cKeir Starmer<\/a> needs to stop the export of all UK arms to Israel \u2013 today \u2013 and sanction Netanyahu and his cabinet.\u201d<\/p>\n

But would this even make a difference?<\/p>\n

The US is by far Israel\u2019s most powerful ally and, as vice-president JD Vance<\/a> made plain at a bilateral meeting with David Lammy<\/a> today, it seems unlikely the States will halt weapon shipments to Israel.<\/p>\n

After all, the White House has no plans to recognise a Palestinian state right now, unlike the UK and France.<\/p>\n

Dr Burcu Ozcelik, <\/a>a senior research fellow at the think tank, RUSI (Royal United Services Institute) told HuffPost UK that even if all of Europe<\/a> stopped sending exports which could be used for arms, that alone would not be enough to halt the war.<\/p>\n

She said: \u201cUS bilateral military assistance to Israel is significant and congressionally mandated, amounting to a lifeline for Israel\u2019s defensive capabilities, particularly in missile defence funding.<\/p>\n

\u201cIsrael also has a substantial indigenous defence industry as it has tried to become more self-reliant in recent years.\u201d<\/p>\n

But, the specialist noted the \u201cUS assistance dwarfs Europe\u2019s\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf other European countries follow Germany\u2019s decision to halt military supplies, this will send a strong message but will likely still fall short of stopping the war in Gaza as long as US funding continues unhindered. European leverage is limited,\u201d Dr Ozcelik explained.<\/p>\n

However, the specialist did not suggest this would be at all a wasted effort.<\/p>\n

She told HuffPost UK: \u201cAt the same time, a cut in military support could render Israel more vulnerable to other future threats, including from Iran.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis would raise a profound challenge, especially as countering Iranian state and non-state attacks against Israel remains a pillar of UK\u2019s policy in the Middle East.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn parallel to considerations of how to assert pressure on Israel, increased pressure by the UK and EU on Hamas beyond rhetoric to more direct actions that may constrain Hamas political officials and its financing networks in the region may offer a pathway toward the release of Israeli hostages and a ceasefire.\u201d<\/p>\n

Either way, Vance made it quite clear today that the US is not completely aligned with Europe\u2019s horror at Israel\u2019s expansion plan \u2013 but that they were willing to work together.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cI think all of us can work on how to solve that problem [in Gaza]. Obviously, it\u2019s not an easy problem to solve, or it would have already been dealt with, but we share, I think, that focus and that goal.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe may have some disagreements about how exactly to accomplish that goal, and we\u2019ll talk about that today.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Israel has just declared its intentions to expand its military offensive in Gaza, despite the deepening humanitarian crisis…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":328124,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5174],"tags":[2000,299,5187,2194,837],"class_list":{"0":"post-328123","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-eu","8":"tag-eu","9":"tag-europe","10":"tag-european","11":"tag-gaza","12":"tag-israel"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114993699408432338","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328123","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=328123"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328123\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/328124"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=328123"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=328123"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=328123"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}