Letters to the Times this morniing on the West Bank sanctions:
Sir, The prime minister thinks a trade ban on settlements in the West Bank will somehow help to prevent the “destruction of the two-state solution” (report, Sep 8). This is naive and counterproductive. Israel is surrounded by malign actors, all of whom preach the destruction of Israel and the death of Jews. They do not want a two-state solution: they want a single state of Palestine. Had Andy Burnham spoken to Binyamin Netanyahu he may have understood that settlements and the presence of the IDF in the West Bank are essential for Israel’s self-defence.
Israel should be encouraged to do more to stop attacks by settlers, but imposing trade bans will not help Palestinians. It will upset Israel and our American allies and reduce further any influence the UK has in the Middle East. Israel needs our support not our condemnation: Burnham should listen to the advice of Labour Friends of Israel rather than the extreme left.
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Sir, The proposed ban on trade with “settler” businesses in the West Bank will surely have one or more of the following consequences: a significant deterioration or even severance of relations between the British and Israeli governments; a strengthening of the right in Israel, boosting Netanyahu in the period leading up to a crucial election; a boost to Hamas and all its supporters in Britain; an encouragement to Jew hatred on the left; and an increase in insecurity and fear within all parts of the British Jewish community.
What it will plainly not do is assist the achievement of a two-state solution, which no current Palestinian leader would even consider.
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