Monday, November 15, 2010

"Brown must stop sitting on his hands. He must condemn unambiguously Israel's tactics, just as he has rightly condemned Hamas's rocket attacks. Then he must lead the EU into using its economic and diplomatic leverage in the region to broker peace. The EU is by far Israel's biggest export market, and by far the biggest donor to the Palestinians. It must immediately suspend the proposed new cooperation agreement with Israel until things change in Gaza, and apply tough conditions on any long-term assistance to the Palestinian community." (Nick 'Ratfink' Clegg out of power)

"Deputy prime Minister Nick Clegg attempted to open a new chapter in the relationship between the Liberal Democrats and British Jews this week when he emphasised his party’s support for Israel and reiterated the coalition’s pledge to change the law on universal jurisdiction.
"He told a lunch held by Liberal Democrat Friends of Israel that he was aware of past tensions, and was engaged in 'an operation to clarify misunderstandings'."
...
"However, he did not believe it was right that magistrates should be able to issue 'politically motivated' warrants for visiting politicians and military figures. The issue reached a head last December when an arrest warrant was issued for Israeli Opposition leader Tzipi Livni for her role in Operation Cast Lead in Gaza.
"'The issuing of such warrants should be a matter for one of central government’s senior law officers, not for local magistrates,' said Mr Clegg." (Same fellow, now in government)

4 comments:

Chris Hall said...

These U-turns seem to becoming a habit for Mr Clegg. I wonder what principle he'll trample into the dirt next?

Jemmy Hope said...

I don't know, he must be running out fast.

thankgodimatheist said...

There goes the neighbourhood. I could bet on it..I would have made money..Not a lot though..A question of odds.

Jemmy Hope said...

I don't think any UK bookie would have laid odds against a politician breaking his word.
I am puzzled though that Cleggie hasn't made a follow-up statement to his moment of clarity when he said that the Iraq war was illegal. I expected that by now we'd have heard that his words were "taken out of context", and when he said "illegal" he didn't mean "illegal".