Once a friend of Israel, Keir Starmer now faces open hostility from Jerusalem
Much focus has been placed on UK prime minister Keir Starmer’s plummeting relationship with US president Donald Trump, but his breach in relations with Israel is arguably deeper. It was on full show when he addressed the House of Commons on Monday afternoon.Starmer told MPs that Israel’s brutal bombing campaign in Lebanon “should stop now”. “Israel’s strikes are wrong. They are having devastating humanitarian consequences and pushing Lebanon into a crisis,” he said, unusually forthright in diplomatic terms.He was, in effect, only repeating what he had first said during his trip to the Gulf last week. But putting it on the official record of the UK parliament gave the admonishment extra weight. He also promised that he would argue for Lebanon to be included in the ongoing two-week ceasefire in the US-led war on Iran, which Israel has already rejected.READ MOREWelcome to the new Global Briefing newsletter No rest for JD Vance as Trump gets cross with the pope againMelania brings Epstein back into focus as Iran war hastens Maga mutiny against Trump France is talking to the Iranians, and it’s paying offOnce upon a time, Starmer was a doyen of UK-Israeli relations who, as leader of the opposition, proclaimed he had ripped anti-Semitism out of the Labour Party “by the roots”. Subsequently, he attracted the lasting ire of British Muslims for suggesting Israel was within its rights to deprive Gazans of power and water.After Starmer took power, Israel’s leader Binyamin Netanyahu promised to build a “friendship” with him. Some Israeli politicians even called Starmer, who sometimes attends synagogue in north London with his Jewish wife Victoria, a “beacon of hope”.That all seemed an aeon ago during Monday’s debate as Starmer, whose government last year sanctioned members of the Israeli cabinet, wagged a diplomatic finger at the Jewish state and did not contradict MPs from across the house who excoriated Israel.Emily Thornberry, Labour’s chair of the Commons foreign relations committee, asked Starmer how he’d ensure “Israel is prevented from taking over Lebanon south of the Litani river”. She told him “her blood ran cold” at an apparent suggestion by Israel’s defence minister, Israel Katz, that Israel might wreak upon southern Lebanon what it had in Gaza.Instead of, as he once might have done reflexively, balancing out his party colleague with a reply about Israel having the right to exist and also to defend itself, the UK prime minister merely thanked her for her “important” question.“Those attacks should stop and it’s important that we are very clear about that,” he said.From across the floor, former Tory education minister Kit Malthouse, unusual in his party for the depth of his frequent criticisms of Israel, said the prime minister’s words would have no effect on an “Israeli government seemingly led by supremacist maniacs”.Starmer used to push back against that type of rhetoric. “I am grateful to the right honourable gentleman for raising this really serious issue,” was all he said on Monday.MP after MP chimed in to level fury against Israel, without comment from the prime minister. Former shadow chancellor John McDonnell said “Netanyahu is out of control”. Starmer thanked him and reiterated that Lebanon should be included in the ceasefire.Green Party MP Ellie Chowns said it was time for the UK to implement sanctions on the “war criminal” Israeli prime minister. He simply ignored what she said.Labour’s Ruth Jones asked what he was going to do to help “the victims of Netanyahu”.“I thank my honourable friend for her question . . . It is so important that we stay anchored in our principles and our values, foremost of which is that any action we take or support must have a lawful basis,” said Starmer.The UK prime minister’s changed attitude towards Israel has been heard loud and clear in Jerusalem. Netanyahu no longer pursues friendship with Starmer. Instead, he says Starmer is “on the wrong side of humanity” for criticising Israel’s actions in Gaza and that his decision to recognise the state of Palestine was “absurd”.Meanwhile, few have excoriated the UK prime minister like Netanyahu’s Likud colleague Amichai Chikli, Israel’s minister for diaspora affairs. Asked on Sky News in Australia in recent weeks what he thought of Trump’s unfavourable comparison of Starmer with Winston Churchill, Chikli burst out laughing.He said Starmer was “one of the weakest leaders all across the western hemisphere”.“I had zero expectations for him,” he said. “He is totally committed to the Muslim voters who took over many cities – London first and foremost, Birmingham and other cities.”That may come as news to the Muslim voters of Birmingham who, polls suggest, have abandoned Labour in their droves for the Green Party and pro-Gaza independents.Chikli suggested that without a change in leadership, “there is no future” for Britain.“I’m sorry for the British people. We don’t need Keir Starmer. I pray for the British people that they get different leadership.”Even for Netanyahu’s hardline government, this was unusually sharp criticism of a sitting UK leader. Then again, Chikli was the Israeli politician who last year taunted Starmer by inviting British anti-immigration activist Tommy Robinson to Jerusalem.[ Mark Paul: Viral video of London stabbing sparks debate over crime.Opens in new window ]
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