When a bad-tempered drunk makes a spectacle of himself on the pavement outside the chip shop the neighbours will look on in disgust; but to his family at home this abuse of their well-being is merely what they have to put up with daily. Starmur and the Labour government treat their own population with contempt – that they are now rewarding Hamas is no more than one might expect of them. Extracts from three Telegraph articles that are a little more coherent than I am at the moment.
The recognition of a Palestinian state is one of the gravest errors in our nation’s foreign policy in decades. . . While symbolic in most respects – Britain ceased to be the colonial power in the region in 1948 – there will be at least one real world impact: Hamas will be able to point to a tangible outcome of its terror campaign against Israel, and claim its tactics work.
The Prime Minister is also understood to be preparing further sanctions against Hamas . . . Yet we must accept that they will make no significant impact to Hamas’s prospects, and will do little to accelerate the defeat of a genocidal terror group that unleashed latter-day Einsatzgruppen on Jewish civilians on October 7 2023.
In doing so, it seems likely that Sir Keir is striving to appear even-handed, betraying our erstwhile ally Israel while hoping to sweeten the pill by simultaneously hitting Hamas. He surely hopes that this combination will placate the US administration and signal to pro-Israeli British voters that he isn’t singling out the Jewish state for opprobrium, while also demonstrating to far-Left and Israelophobic elements that he agrees with their absurd worldview.
This attempt at having his cake and eating it, first seen at this week’s press conference with President Donald Trump, will convince nobody. The premature and unconditional recognition of a Palestinian state is one of the gravest errors in British foreign policy of the past 50 years. It is a shameful moment for this Government and country, and a fundamental rupture with our past approach.
Almost nine out of 10 Britons do not back Sir Keir Starmer recognising a Palestinian state without conditions, a poll has found. The survey by JL Partners suggests almost 90 per cent of the population does not support the Prime Minister’s decision,
On Saturday, the families of Hamas hostages warned that Sir Keir was “rewarding murderers” by giving Palestine recognition.
The criticism echoed Kemi Badenoch, the Tory leader, who said on Friday that recognition was a “reward for terrorism”.
Sir Ephraim Mirvis, the Chief Rabbi, said recognising Palestine was a “historic error of foreign policy, which will only impede the cause of peace”.
Critics have claimed the Prime Minister agreed to acknowledge Palestine as part of an attempt to appease restless Labour MPs before the annual party conference next week.
Lord Woolfson, the shadow attorney general, wrote in a post on X: “This has nothing to do with peace in the Middle East and everything to do with peace in the Labour Party. It will achieve neither.”
Sir Keir has faced pressure from his party to recognise Palestinian statehood amid the conflict in Gaza. A third of the Cabinet had urged him to act, and more than 130 MPs signed a letter in support of recognition. On Sunday, he confirmed that Britain had recognised Palestine at the same time as Canada and Australia.
The conflict in the enclave has become a highly charged issue for Labour. . .five constituencies previously held by Labour MPs that were won by pro-Gaza independents. Several Left-wing Labour MPs took to social media on Sunday to maintain pressure on Sir Keir.
