Jake Wallis Simons in the JC:
You know those trade sanctions that Ed Miliband is about to slap on Israel? Well, last night, according to Bloomberg, British diplomats were quietly telling the Americans something rather different: that the measures are largely symbolic, and that nothing of substance will change in our trade or security relationship with Jerusalem.
That tells you everything you need to know about this government: contradictory messages to different people on the same day. This isn’t about running the country responsibly, in the national interest; it is about managing optics, appeasing its own backbenchers and wavering progressive voters on the one hand, and managing the demands of reality on the other.
This is all part of the “comprehensive reset” with Israel that the foreign secretary promised parliament last month. According to a Labour MP – who spoke to the Telegraph anonymously – these measures were intended to reassure “muppet” backbenchers who were “freaked out” by email campaigns from Gaza activists and the Greens threatening to steal their seats….
…there is a particular species of foolishness in a policy engineered to be too feeble to achieve anything and too provocative to pass under the radar. Ministers may assure Washington that the whole thing is merely theatre, and they may well believe it. But they are playing with fire, and going on current evidence, these muppets are about to burn a lot of stuff down.
Also at the JC, Kemi Badenoch weighs in:
For all Labour claim to have rooted out antisemitism internally, the degree of anti-Israel hatred means that Labour’s approach to many of these issues is Corbyn in all but name.
Under Keir Starmer, the government suspended arms export licences, halted trade negotiations, restored funding to UNRWA and changed Britain’s approach to the International Criminal Court. It recognised a Palestinian state while Israeli hostages remained in captivity.
But this was not enough for Andy Burnham. In one of his first interventions as an MP, he said he was sorry that Labour “got it wrong” on Gaza. According to him, they should have gone harder.
For all Labour claim to have rooted out antisemitism internally, the degree of anti-Israel hatred means that Labour’s approach to many of these issues is Corbyn in all but name.
Under Keir Starmer, the government suspended arms export licences, halted trade negotiations, restored funding to UNRWA and changed Britain’s approach to the International Criminal Court. It recognised a Palestinian state while Israeli hostages remained in captivity.
But this was not enough for Andy Burnham. In one of his first interventions as an MP, he said he was sorry that Labour “got it wrong” on Gaza. According to him, they should have gone harder.
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