Hagai Segal
Photo: Zoom 77
Prince William - courting controversy in the Falklands
Photo: AP
British lesson on hypocrisy
Op-ed: Shameless Britain clings to faraway Falklands while reprimanding Israel over ‘occupation’
The 30-year anniversary of the Falklands War, in two months, may be disrupted because of a new round of fighting there.
This week, the British government dispatched a nuclear submarine to the Falklands, and Argentina is angry. Officials in Buenos Aires have not yet recovered from the previous British provocation, where helicopter pilot Prince William, the Queen’s grandson, was deployed at the controversial islands.
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The Brits firmly deny any ill intentions, yet they do not blink when the question of what the hell they are doing there is brought up. What do they have to do with distant islands on the edge of South America?
The Brits most certainly don’t have any ancestral rights there. Britain took over the Falklands during the colonialist era and forgot to evacuate them when this era ended. When Argentina took over the islands in 1982, the Thatcher government reoccupied them in force and at any price.
Simply disgusting
A total of 258 British soldiers were killed, six warships were sunk, and 34 fighter jets were shot down. Ever since then, Britain not only insists on maintaining its control over the islands; it also forbids Argentinean nationals from setting foot there.
At the same time, Britain forbids us from controlling Judea and Samaria. One British arm holds on to the distant Falklands, while another arm reprimands us for the 1967 conquests.
Her Majesty’s government dislikes our presence in an area of merely 6,000 square kilometers, a stone’s throw away from Jerusalem, yet allows itself to occupy an area that is twice as large, located tens of thousands of kilometers away from London.
The most incisive thing we can say about this double standard is what Susan Rice said this week when referring to the Russian and Chinese veto in the UN Security Council: Disgusting. Simply disgusting.
