The BBC reports, “Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper says she has warned Israel not to annex parts of the West Bank in retaliation for the UK’s recognition of Palestinian statehood.” Somebody needs to break it to Cooper, and Prime Minister Keir Starmer, that the wishes and opinions of the long-gone British Empire no longer matter. The U.K., if its people continue to tolerate the likes of Starmer and Cooper in their government, needs to be viewed by its allies as an old friend who is very sick and is not going to get better. Britain is now, as predicted by Rudyard Kipling long ago, is “one with Nineveh and Tyre.”
Far-called our navies melt away,
On dune and headland sinks the fire,
Lo, all our pomp of yesterday
Is one with Nineveh and Tyre!
When Kipling wrote this poem, his country ruled a good part of the known world. The British Empire made English almost a universal international language, and its legal system prevails in most of its former colonies, but that is all. Its massive body that once consisted of India, Australia, and almost all of North America is long gone, and all that remains is the head plus a few scattered possessions. There is even talk, through Scottish secession, of dividing the head itself. Britain was indeed a world leader when Winston Churchill was in charge, but he is long gone, as is Margaret Thatcher. What is left is similar to a duke’s or earl’s decaying mansion and estate, both of which are in disrepair for lack of funds. The duke or earl still has his title of nobility, but he simply no longer matters.
The Fall of the British Empire
The disintegration of the British Empire can be attributed to two factors: (1) disrespect for its stakeholders and (2) the exhaustion that comes from trying to rule the world. The latter is a good reason for the United States to reduce its overseas commitments, which are expensive and put our men in uniform at unnecessary risk. Much of our national debt is due to our status as an empire without benefits.
The first factor became apparent during our War of Independence, which was caused by Britain’s treatment of British subjects as “colonials” to be milked dry for the enrichment of the Home Island. Americans were, for example, prohibited from manufacturing anything of major complexity so that industrialists in England could sell us shoddy manufactured goods in exchange for raw materials — a classic form of colonial exploitation. George Washington was among the disgruntled customers, and the rest was history.
Next we come to the human and economic costs of maintaining an empire. Britain’s history has, for centuries, consisted of enlisting working-class men whose alternatives to service involved debtor’s prison, starvation, the workhouse, or some combination thereof. They were then sent off to die from disease or enemy action in places whose names end in “pore” (as depicted by Kipling’s “Shillin’ a Day”). The survivors were then discarded to the streets and the workhouses, again as depicted by “Shillin’ a Day” and “The Last of the Light Brigade.” In “The Widow’s Party,” the soldier who narrates the story is carried from the field in a stretcher while half his company lies dead, all for a cause he does not even understand. Most of the conflicts were for the benefit of England’s aristocrats rather than the actual safety and rights of British subjects, although some of the aristocrats, who provided the officer class, also took their chances.
During the First World War, Britain took men from Australia and threw their lives away at places like Gallipoli, as depicted by Sabaton and also Eric Bogle.
Then a big Turkish shell knocked me arse over head
And when I woke up in me hospital bed
And saw what it had done, well I wished I was dead
Never knew there was worse things than dyin’
British generals, who were infamous for ordering their soldiers to attack dug-in German machine guns and executing for “cowardice” those who faltered, turned to populous India for even more cannon fodder. When we combine this with Britain’s exploitation of India, it comes as no surprise that India seceded after the Second World War. This is not to say that British rule did not have positive effects because it abolished suttee (widow-burning) and Thuggee (ritual murder by followers of the goddess Kali). It also left behind a national language and rule of law as opposed to the whims of local rulers. Nonetheless, the latter reference reports, “the economic exploitation orchestrated by the British left an indelible mark on India’s socio-economic fabric.”
You Broke It, You Fix It
When the British departed from India, they left behind one of their typical colonial messes — namely, a series of armed conflicts between India and Pakistan. The current mess in the Middle East is also primarily of England’s making, because its government defrauded Jews and Arabs alike during the First World War.
In general terms, the correspondence effectively traded British support of an independent Arab state for Arab assistance in opposing the Ottoman Empire. It was later contradicted by the incompatible terms of the Sykes-Picot Agreement, secretly concluded between Britain and France in May 1916, and Britain’s Balfour Declaration of 1917.
Promising the same thing to two or more parties is commonly known as fraud, and the onus is on the U.K. to make it right. Note that Jewish Palestine (see the July 24, 1922 map) as promised by the U.K. includes everything “from the river to the sea,” which entitles Israel to annex Gaza, Judea, and Samaria to make good the U.K.’s bargain with the Zionists. It is also up to the U.K. to make good its bargain with the Arabs by paying them reparations and compensation. Israel’s response to Starmer’s recognition of “Palestine” should accordingly be, “You broke it, you fix it.”
Imagine Starmer’s chagrin when Arabs wake up to the fact that Britain, rather than Zionists, gave them a raw deal and that the Zionists will be more than happy to help them get redress at the U.K.’s expense.
Remember the Lusitania
Keir Starmer’s recognition of a Palestinian state at Israel’s expense should meanwhile result in public relations consequences that include ongoing recitations of the U.K.’s aforementioned fraud against the Arabs and Jews, its colonial messes in general, and also its de facto manslaughter (or worse) of 128 American citizens on the Lusitania in 1915. No, this is not a conspiracy theory that suggests even remotely that anything other than a German submarine launched the fatal torpedo. The Lusitania was, however, carrying munitions that had no purpose other than to kill German soldiers, and that made the ship a legitimate target just as Hamas makes schools, hospitals, and mosques into targets by using them to house combatants and weapons. It was the U-boat’s commander’s duty to prevent the Lusitania’s murderous cargo from arriving in Britain for transfer to the Western front.
In summary, nobody asked Keir Starmer or Yvette Cooper for advice on how Israel should deal with Hamas, so both need to sit down and shut their blattering mouths. When we add that their own country was directly responsible for most of the trouble in that region today, that is an added incentive for them to remain silent and keep their meddling hands out of the situation.
Civis Americanus is the pen name of a contributor who remembers the lessons of history and wants to ensure that our country never needs to learn those lessons again the hard way. The author remains anonymous due to being subjected to cancel culture for denouncing Black Lives Matter’s incitement of civil disorder.
Image via Pxhere.