Edward Stringer

The government has announced that owing to the war in Gaza, students from the Israeli Defence Forces will no longer be welcome at the UK’s Royal College of Defence Studies in London. Those who are critical of Israel will welcome this display as robust signalling. I would argue that even they, and all those who desire long-term resolution of the region’s more intractable problems, should think long before supporting it. It is more likely that the most serious damage will be done to us. The RCDS is one the UK’s soft power jewels. I attended as a student in 2008 (one remains a member for life) and had it under command a decade later when ‘Director General UK Defence Academy’.

It might be a little unfair to pick on Lisa Nandy – who was bounced on Radio 4's Today programme yesterday morning and who, to be fair, did condemn unequivocally the actions of the Palestine Action cadres who attacked two of the 14 Voyager aircraft that form the Royal Air Force’s strategic tanker force. But her extemporised response betrayed annoyance at 'choices' over a protest before, correctly, reminding the audience that this was about national security. And it certainly is. These aircraft are vital to our national defence. They refuel the air-defence fighters that patrol the thousands of square miles of the airspace over the North Atlantic that is our Nato responsibility, intercepting nuclear-capable Russian bombers on a regular basis.

Predictably, the US/UK military coalition that attacked Houthi forces twelve days ago has been in action again. ‘Predictably’ because the initial strike was always unlikely to dismantle the Houthis now extensive capacity to attack shipping in the Red Sea. But, more importantly, because it is currently in their interests to keep up the belligerence, as it is very much in the interests of their main backer: Iran. And not just Iran. Those questioning the financial wisdom of using high-tech western missiles costing millions to defeat rudimentary rockets and drones costing thousands aren’t quite drawing the right equation.