Brilliant speaker at the Festival of Humanism
June 2026
Dr David Wearing gave a brilliant speech to the Festival in Bournemouth on the role of the UK in the Gulf. He set his observations in an historical context and provided a cogent analysis of the way we, and other countries in the West, have supported the despotic regimes in Gulf. The recent trade deal was celebrated by the government with no apparent concern for the welfare and rights of its people.
He anchored his talk in the attitudes of Britain’s governing class making the distinction between ‘we’ meaning them and ‘we’ meaning the population at large. Some of the latter are not comfortable with how our governments have joyfully provided arms and succour to these regimes despite their appalling human rights record.
He pointed out the arrant hypocrisy of government ministers and others in the governing class, talking about ‘British power standing for free trade, the rule of law and democracy’, polar opposites of what is happening in the Gulf. We have consistently supported illiberal regimes and quoted a speech made by Tony Blair at the time of the Iraq war.
The 2011 Arab Spring saw uprisings in many North African and Arab states. They were gradually extinguished often by brutal means. He pointed out that the security forces were often trained by the West including the UK.
Oil
The history is basically about oil and its discovery in what was then Persia. Britain set up a series of protectorates around the Arabian peninsular with the primary objective of securing the safe supply of this valuable resource. As the rest of the world gradually moved towards more liberal regimes, the Gulf monarchies were supported first by the British and gradually by America as it became the power in the region.
One of his main points was how closely tied we are to these states. People are aware for example, of investment in football clubs like Newcastle and Manchester City. They are less aware of how much we need their money to fund our deficit. We are aware of the arms sales but less aware of the ‘soft’ exports of accountancy, legal and other services. The economies are closely tied with a high degree of inter-dependence.
He noted that we would find it difficult to support our arms industry without the sales to the Gulf states. Our low investment in defence (defense) is subject to political attention at the moment with the resignation of the Defence Secretary last week.
Self-deception
His main theme is the degree to which we tell ourselves stories. Britain was deeply implicated in the Yemen war with our people and the RAF closely involved in supporting Saudi forces in their bombing campaign. He spoke disparagingly about the head of the Army who talked about the ‘rules based international order maintaining peace and prosperity’. An almost baffling lack of awareness.
It was closely linked to a nineteenth century colonial mindset where we viewed the Middle East as populated by backward peoples in contrast with the civilised and advanced West. Rather forgets the contributions to optics, astronomy, medicine and mathematics from that region (the invention of algebra for example, and the words for the angles of a triangle are Arabic in origin). This thinking by the governing elite makes it easy to carry on supporting Israel with arms sales and ignoring the use of starvation as a weapon of war.
He touched briefly on the actual links between their monarchs are ours with visits by members of the Royal Family to the region and their visits here.
A fascinating talk which made explicit the ‘double think’ in our dealings with the region and where the ordinary voter is excluded from the debate. Money and arms sales dominate the thinking helped by a colonial mindset. Concern for the lives of political opponents, human rights activists and journalists, who are frequently arrested and held for years; the huge use of the death penalty, and the lack of rights of women does not seem to trouble our political leaders. Much play is made of Sir Keir Starmer’s (prime minster at the time of writing) background as a human rights lawyer, yet there is no sign of this, no sign at all, in his speeches on Gulf related matters.
His book AngloArabia – Why Gulf Wealth Matters to Britain (Polity Press) is available.
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Amnesty in Salisbury & South Wiltshire 
Propaganda: England, France, Russia and the UN proclaim that Israel has the right to self defense. But these imperialist powers support the Arab opinion that Jews do not have the right to self-determination. Proof: Israel won the Nakba wars of 1948 and 1967 yet post ’67 the UN Security Council passed UN 242! Thereafter UN Resolutions 446 and 2334 condemn Israeli illegal settlement of ‘occupied Palestinian territories’. The Roman empire a dead empire. Jews defeated the Nakba Arabs! Israel aint Palestine. The UN attempt to impose the slander of “Occupied Palestinian Territories’, a propaganda lie.
Its not the place of foreign country UN members, many of whom do not even hold diplomatic relations with Israel to impose the name of the Dead Roman empires’ given name to Judea after the defeat of the Bar Kochba revolt in 135 CE. David Ben Gurion named the new Jewish state – Israel. The UN condemned Jordan’s annexation of Samaria as illegal in 1950. Yet the UN after the June 1967 War refers to Samaria by the Jordanian name “West Bank” as occupied Palestinian territory, despite the 1964 PLO Charter which referred only to 1948 Israel as “occupied territory”! Therefore, all post 1967 June War UN Resolutions promote the 1939 White Paper; they seek to restrict where Jews can settle in E. Jerusalem, and Samaria, based upon the blantant lie wherein block voting UN countries pass UN GA 3379 (later repealed), which condemns Israel for its right to achieve self determination in the territories of British mandate Palestine based upon the British separation of Trans-Jordan at the Jordan River; Samaria part of the League of Nations “Palestine Mandated territories” to establish a Jewish National Home based upon the 1917 Balfour Declaration which the 1939 White Paper clearly defrauded and repudiated! Therefore the UN post the June 1967 War have openly rejected the State of Israel’s rights to self-determination within the borders of the League of Nations Palestine mandated territories.
The focus of UN resolutions on post 1967 Nakba Arab defeat, compare to one hand clapping. UN Resolution 446 & 2334 openly condemns Israeli settlements in Samaria & E. Jerusalem as “illegal”. This one sided condemnation denies the equal rights of the Jewish state to self determination. The racist UN imperialism ignores the language of the original League of Nations mandate Palestine when it declares an Arab Palestinian state! Never in all recorded history has there ever existed an Arab Palestinian state. UN revisionist history which condemns Israel for its “illegal occupation of an Arab Palestinian State” – therein denies Israel – the victor of both ’48 and ’67 defensive wars – wherein Arab leaders promised to throw the Jews into the Sea – the UN unilaterally rejects Israel equal rights to achieve self determination within the borders of the original Palestine mandate framed through the language of the League of Nations.
All Arab – Israeli war fought over the steadfast refusal of racist Arab countries who deny that dhimmi Jews have equal rights to achieve self determination within the borders of the League of Nations Palestine Mandated territories. The racist UN revisionist history ignores the cold hard fact that all Arab states rejected UN 181. The League of Nations Mandate did call for a Jewish national home, but it also did not create a sovereign Jewish state with fixed borders. The 1948 first Independence war did not create fixed borders either! The PLO Charter did not condemn in 1964 Jordan’s “west bank” nor Egypts “Gaza”. The Nakba defeat in 1967 Israel ruled the lands specified through the League of Nations and Britain’s Trans-Jordan the international borders of the Jewish state won through war. The language of UN 242 racist presumption that Samaria “occupied territory” – as defined through UN 446 and 2334 proves that the UN racism rejects Israel’s equal rights to achieve self-determination within the borders framed by the League of Nations and the establishment of Trans-Jordan at the border of the Jordan river.
The UN post June War focus upon “the West Bank” as illegal occupied territory – presumes that the UN internationalization of Arab Israeli wars determines the borders of the Jewish state! This racism emphatically compares to the Jim Crow law of American apartheid post WWII which Dr. King and Malcolm X opposed and defeated. The UN does not have any mandate over “Palestine” after David Ben Gurion declared Israeli Independence in 1948. Why? Palestine as a League of Nations mandate territory ceased to exist; no different than when barbarians conquered the Western Roman empire that the Roman name “Palestine” ceased to exist. The UN insistence upon the name “Palestine” seeks to invalidate Jewish self determination which named the State Israel.
The status of Samaria: The UN condemnation of Jordan annexation of their so-called “West Bank”, simply not within the authority of the UN to validate after the Arab Nakba – as disputed territory. The UN does not dispute the post WWII division of Prussia between Russia and Poland. That international diplomacy employs the term “palestine” does not determine the name of the region any more than post the 1846 Mexican American War did Mexico shape or determine the final borders of all the future states which the American army captured. When Jews lost their Bar Kochba revolt against the Romans, Caesar called the region Palestine. Israel crushed the Arab armies in both their Nakba defeats in ’48, and ’67. Attempt to impose revisionist history – a do as I say but not as I do hypocrisy simply invalid and void.
Modern “international law” no more determines the name of the Jewish state as Israel than it does the dead Roman empire name of Palestine. Any outside power which attempts to superimpose a name which Ben Gurion rejected therein despises Jewish equal rights – as defined through the Balfour Declaration – to achieve self determination. The final border map of the Jewish state not determined by some pie in the sky “international law” narishkeit propaganda. Wars and treaties signed by Israel Egypt, Jordan and possibly 27\06\26 Lebanon determine the border of the Jewish state – herein determines Jewish self-determination. No different than Prussia post WWII divided between Poland and Russia.
Israel’s international borders come from negotiated settlements, facts on the ground of military victories, and the UN does not enter into these diplomatic resolutions made between nation states which share a common border. Post ’67 UN decrees attempt to intervene into Israeli strategic interests. UN revisionist history no different than Church revisionist history which proclaims itself as the New Israel! Never in all human history has there, even for a single day, existed a independent Arab Palestinian state. UN voting blocks do not determine Israeli international borders. The Jordanian “West Bank” ceased to exist following the Nakba ’67 Jordanian surrender. Just as the Roman empire collapse terminated the name Palestine. Attempts to restore the Roman empire, such as Czar/Caesar or the Holy Rome Empire in 800CE as dead as the Roman empire itself.
The ‘west bank’ ceased to exist with the Jordanian Nakba defeat just as Constantinople ceased to exist when the Ottomans made Istanbul their Capital. Israel changed the UN condemned Jordanian “west bank” back to Samaria. The territory did not disappear, as as did the Roman empire. Jews rule Samaria not the dead Roman empire. That the UN and most states with an agenda still use “West Bank” means as much to Israeli self determination as Americans voicing opposition to Russian policies in the current Ukraine war!
International recognition of borders, settlements, and the legal framing of the territory compares to the abomination of Chamberlains betrayal of the Czech Republic in 1938 and its puke White Paper in 1939. Munich, a direct great-power handoff of a sovereign state’s territory; the 1939 White Paper, a British policy reversing parts of the Mandate – no different from the UN revisionist history of UN Resolution 446 and 2334. The UN dog chasing its tail Fourth Geneva Convention – Article 49(6) – has nothing to do with the Arab repeated attempts to complete the Nazi genocide of Jews! The UN “law of occupation” follows the Arab racism which emphatically rejects Jews equal rights to achieve self determination in the Middle East.
Just as the UN did not condemn the Allied imposed forced population transfer of native German populations in Prussia, it cannot thereafter pretend that it can impose Article 49(6) upon Israel after the Nakba defeat to throw the Jews into the sea in ’67. Attempts to make revisionist history which pretends that Israel post ’67 and Prussia post WWII must stand upon different scales of judgment — utter and complete narishkeit.
Prussia was a postwar defeat and territorial settlement imposed by the victors; post ’67 the UN imposed a cease fire which prevented Israel doing the same to the Nakba Arabs! All Arab Israeli wars have experience international outside interference. Any attempt to deny this fundamental historic fact constitutes as revisionist history. Israel’s peace with Egypt, Jordan, the Abraham Accords determines its borders. Not imperialistic revisionist history UN GA 3379 narishkeit of UN SC (Chapter VI) declaration which condemn Israeli illegal settlements!
President Trump’s Abraham Accords came in conjunction with Washington recognition of Isrsael’s Capital of Jerusalem in 2017 and recognition of the Golan Heights as Israeli land in 2019! This negated and uprooted UN 2334, in favor of Israel making peace with Arab and Muslim nation states and relegated the dhimmi stateless Arab refugee “1964 Palestinians” as secondary to achieve stability in the Middle East. Post the Oct7th 2023 Abomination War the Trump Gaza Board of Peace excludes Russia, France, Britain, the EU and the UN. Hence the Trump Administration rejects Obama’s UN 2334 just as and equal to Obama treaty with Iran.
Post ’48 Arabs received Israeli citizenship. No Arab country as repatriated its dhimmi Arab Nakba refugees! Who respects the League of Nations Palestine mandate and who despises this mandate? The UN Partition Plan was recommendatory, not binding. UN 446 and 2334 pretend a “binding condemnation of Israel”. Jordan’s 1950 annexation of the West Bank was recognized only by Britain and Pakistan. The 1949 lines were temporary armistice lines, not borders; post Nakba crushing defeat of Allah the dead God in 1967 -became the baseline for later negotiations.
Israel did not give citizenship to post PLO charter Palestinians as given to post ’48 Arabs. It placed the recapture Samarian territories under military law. Attempts to declare military law post PLO terrorism as a “hostile army” revisionist propaganda. Judea and Samaria the heart and soul of the Judean and Israel kingdoms. UN Resolutions (chapter VI) 446 and 2334 employ “occupation” as a moral judgment as if the UN equal the dead Xtian churches in Europe!
Simply not the place of pre-war neutral England and Paris betrayal of their alliance with Israel to later “impose” post Israeli victory the language not “all the territories”. Any more that the SC POPE to declare the settlements have “no legal validity”; the West Bank is “occupied Palestinian territory”. Narishkeit! Never an Arab Palestinian state in all Human history.
Post WWII the Allies transferred some 18 million Germans and transferred Prussia (the heart and soul of the 2nd Germanic empire) to Poland and Russia. The name “Palestine” reintroduced by French mapmakers due to the fact that the “Sick Man of Europe” bankrupt. Post WWI League of Nations dominated by its creaters the allies who won the war. The US did not join the League of Nations because the US Senate refused to ratify Wilson’s treaty obligations.
Just as Italy, Jordan and Pakistan did not exist in antiquity, so too and how much more so Judea the name till the Bar Kochba revolt disaster! Not the place for foreign states to attempt to determine Israeli strategic interests and diplomacy because to do so invalidates Israel’s right to self determination.
The fraud post 1945, the UN Charter prohibit acquiring territory by war. Post WWII Poland Russia and the Czech republic acquired territory through the Nazi defeat. The fraud of “international law” utter propaganda. Israel not a ship floating in the sea of international waters.
Jordanian occupation of Samaria imposed authority of a foreign army according to the UN 1950 condemnation. By 1964 the establishment of the PLO changed the post war ’67 Arab refugee populations into terrorist supporters. Hence Israel did not nationalize ’67 Samaria because it refused to give citizenship to dhimmi Arab refugee terrorists. The post‑1945 norm codified after those Allied decisions seeks to impose one set of rules for great power domination of the Middle East – as if London and Paris won the ’56 War and succeffully seized control of the Suez Canal; and a different set of rules for the peasant States of the Middle East.
The unification of both Italy and Germany post the US Civil War witnessed permanent changes to their international borders post both WWI and WWII. Arab terrorism has its consequences. The fictional post ’64 Palestinians, especially after the Oct 7th 2023 Abomination surprise attack have lost the mandate form heaven. Arab countries have to establish a Palestinian state from within their own borders. Israel catagorically rejects a Palestinian state cut out of the hide of its own rule. Nakba Arab disasters have their consequences. UN biased block voting cannot abra kadabra make these crimes magically disappear and condemn Israel guilty of genocide!
Legally, post Shoah Israelis reject foreign courts to determine European racisim known as “the Jewish problem”. Israel rejected based upon the Torah oath “NEVER AGAIN” not to sign the Rome Treaty. Israel rejects post the White Paper abomination any European imperialism known as “Two-state solution”… divide and conquer. Israel rejects the British division of India and Pakistan. Israel rejects the British division of Iraq and Kuwait. Israel rejects the post war Allied division of Korea and Vietnam. Foreign states do not determine the legality of Israeli strategic interests any more than does the UN determine the strategic interests of the two great power the US or Russia.
Post the Bar Kochba disaster Rome imposed collective punishment upon the Jewish survivors. Post the Oct7th Abomination Nakba victory over Hamas, Hezbollah, Assad, and the Mullahs of Iran the victors dictate the terms of unconditional surrender not the wanna be European 2nd rate powers who lost their attempt to dominate the balance of power across the Middle East when they failed to seize control of the Suez Canal in 1956; had they won that war – the UN would have become mute because of their veto in the Security Council.
The argument that civilians are not responsible for terrorism as flat chested as a grown woman wearing a AA bra! Gazans elected Hamas and rejoiced handing out candy and sweets immediately after Oct 7th. The US bombed civilian populations in Dresden and Tokyo and dropped two atomic bombs when Japanese civilian populations had nothing to do with the Pearl Harbor surprise attack on Dec7th 1941. Millions of Germans lived in Prussia and the Czech Republic for generations, what’s good for the goose good for the gander. The Arab ’48, and ’67 – throw the Jews into the Sea = total war. Actions have their consequences. Revisionist history just a bald face lie. Post 1964 Palestinian political opportunism cannot come at the cost of Jewish self-determination and repeated Arab Nakba defeats.
Post WWII Germans in Prussia – the heart of the 2nd Germanic empire prior to their WWI defeat their civillian did in point of fact lost their legal status as civilians. Just as foreign states do not determine the borders of Israel while sitting in the UN so too and how much more so international law does not compare to the BC AD mythology of the Xtian churches!
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