Starmer’s meeting with Israeli president could set relations back further | Israel-Gaza war

In London, a meeting between Keir Starmer and Israeli President Isaac Herzog could not come to a more difficult time for both leaders, and rather than alleviating Anglo-Israel relations, the encounter faced the risk of returning them further.

After coming to the meeting on Wednesday, there was a slight hope that two men in Downing Street would at least listen to a vision that once shared a two -state solution to the Palestinian conflict about the visions of the rival for the future of Israel.

Now, at best, in the words of the former Middle East Minister Alistair Burt, the two men will talk to each other when they meet at 10, because they have two very different visions about how to reach security for Israel.

Starmer still insists on a two -state solution that Hamas has not ruled, the Palestinian elections are held within a year, and the Palestinian authority is reconstructed and the long -standing common has become common.

Herzog, a member of the Israeli Labor Party, once agreed with this vision, but after Hamas’s attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, he seems to have lost all his belief in the Palestinian self -rule, like most Israelis.

This dispute was reflected in how the two men react to Benjamin Netanyahu’s attack on Hamas in Doha.

Like Donald Trump, Starmer condemned the attack as a violation of Qatar’s sovereignty. Herzog said, “Hamas said that the decision to strike on the high -level leadership of terrorism is important and true… In the face of terrorism and absolute evil, first of all, it is necessary to fight the release of hostages and to create a better future for us and our neighbors.”

It is the vision of “better future ği that Israel will want to examine, including whether Starmer means a larger Israel and annexed West Bank. British Health Minister Wes Streeting said: “If the Israeli government is not the intention of maintaining genocide or ethnic cleansing, the Israeli government should explain how the Israeli government thinks of how to achieve Gaza without war crimes and even to clean Gaza.

The concern is that the distinction between a moderate, reformed Palestinian authority, which cannot form a part of a new government in Palestine for Herzog and has a new election task, has no resonance anymore.

Instead, the recognition of a Palestinian state is seen as an unexplained reward for Hamas, and the betrayal of Israel by the British government, historically, is once a great independent ally, but now it is now ruled by the French.

Herzog was preserved in rejecting a two -state solution because he knew that it was supported by the US Department of State and was symbolized by the rejection of the visa to the UN General Assembly.

However, what may be of interest to some of the Israeli Foreign Ministry is not only a mood in a capricious White House, but also in a part of the United States, as well as the public opinion in Europe and voters recoils the destruction and death given to ordinary Palestinians.

The new IPSOS Mori survey, published this week, shows how much damage to Israel’s reputation. After “I don’t know”, the United Kingdom says that 75% of the people of the people go very further, 13% are correct, and 11% were not far enough.

80% of workers’ voters think that Israel is going too far, and 17% of them do not go further than Israel.

British voters say that the Israeli government is mostly responsible for the War (23%), Hamas (20%) and third in the United States (3%).

And 44% of the people say that Britain should recognize Palestine as a country, only 13% should not do it, and argues that it is a strong support base for the movement.

However, 41% of people believe that they will not make any difference to solve the conflict. In a less surprising way, since such questions are likely to always give a negative answer, British public opinion thinks that Starmer has not done a good job in the Palestinian issue at a rate of 49% to 10%.

Most of the Downing Street focuses on voters lost in reform because of the problem of small boats, but some of them are on the left and how Gaza proves a ready -to -employment sergeant for the newborn green Jeremy Corbyn alliance. The first days can only be the biggest obstacle of Choosing the chosen favorite for Starmer’s Favoritis for Starmer’s Vice -Leader Bridget Phillipson.

This dynamic would not explain that this week from David Lammy to the Foreign Minister until last week, the British did not determine that a genocide in Gaza had taken place, and that there was no evidence that the F-35 parts sold by Britain were used in war crimes. On the left, it is almost a given that a genocide takes place.

There are some lonely voices in the government who want to defend Israel’s power exhibitions. British Washington Ambassador Peter Mandelson approved Israel’s attacks on Iran’s nuclear areas, including attacks of Iran’s political leadership.

However, it is not clear that Starmer, a human rights lawyer who supports international law, has a clear view that he has an additional or activity to diplomacy.