Britain is facing reprisals from the US and Israel as Andy Burnham prepares to impose sanctions on West Bank settlements in a move branded “Jew hate” and “discrimination” by the US Ambassador to Israel. The Mail has more.
A package of measures banning imports from the disputed areas is set to be announced later today, despite a mounting backlash.
The PM informed Donald Trump of his plans in a call last night, with the Government bracing for the president to respond publicly. Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband will face questions in the Commons.
But the move is already causing a storm, with the US ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee branding it “Jew hate” and “discrimination”.
In another escalation, Florida congressman Randy Fine has warned that the state has a law that would ban UK imports in retaliation.
An Israeli Minister has insisted it could support Argentina’s campaign to seize control of the Falklands, while terror experts said access to crucial intelligence could be disrupted.
There is also disquiet in Labour ranks, with one MP raising alarm about “a real risk of increased chances of attacks on the British Jewish community”.
Touring broadcast studios for the Government this morning, Work and Pensions Secretary Pat McFadden insisted Israel remains a key ally of the UK.
He argued the measures would be targeted and not amount to a de facto ban on trade with the state.
Burnham has not spoken to Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu since becoming PM in July.
Labour has been under intense pressure from activists to toughen its position on Israel after losing votes to the Greens and pro-Gaza independents.
Concern about settlements has been mounting for years. It has intensified following Israel’s recent decision to open tenders for 1,200 homes east of Jerusalem, which would divide the West Bank.
Miliband – who is Jewish – last week said the plan was “crossing a red line” and “illegal under international law”.
He said the proposal “cuts through the heart of the West Bank and risks making a Palestinian state unviable”.
Miliband said Labour wanted a “comprehensive reset” of relations with Israel.
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Sending a Jew to tell Jews what they are doing in Palestine is horrible. Why is our world so upside down right now. No one in the USA can stomache Mike huckabee, no one, yet the president assigned him Israel.
you really have to wonder what is going on. It took this many yrs to speak out against the treatment of Palestinians, and then they send a Jewish man to do it. Who is orchestrating Britain. Newsflash, it ain’t your pm’s.
‘The treatment of Palestinians’.
They asked for it, time and time again. As Golda Meir famously observed ‘If the Arabs lay down their arms, no more war. If Israel lays down her arms, no more Israel’.
Your lack of understanding of ‘Palestine’ (no such state, no such kingdom – ever), the relentless attacks on Israel by three terrorist armies sponsored by Iran, the five rejections of a two-state solution, the three attempts to ‘wipe Israel off the map’ through all-out war, etc etc, is lamentable.
Israel has wormed its way into countless governments through its network of ‘friends’ distorting policy. However, when many important strategic contracts etc. are intimately tied to another country, maybe sort this out before announcing performative bollos like this. I wonder how the ‘friends’ in the Labour party are reacting? Meanwhile the ‘friends’ of other countries may well be cock—a-hoop. I don’t care about Israel. Relationships with other countries should be purely transactional and relate only to what is in the best long-term interests of Britain. At least we are not as bad as the US where the decision by them to bomb Iran was at the behest of the Israelis.
Iran’s mad mullahs are a growing threat to the West. They are quite open about it. If left alone they will first destroy Israel then turn their attention, nukes and all, on us.
Would Burnham and his acolytes care if we lost the Falklands? It undermines Britain and what little power and influence it has. Which is the Fabian/Labour plan.
Milliband ought to be executed on the spot!
Labour are student union socialists whose understanding is so shallow yoh couldn’t drown a civil servant in it.
That said although I have always been sympathetic to the only real democracy in the ME, I have run out of patience with the constant pleadong of anti semitism and hiding behind america’s coattails, Netanyahu is a complete see you next time.
I am starting not to care about their future Britain has been a staunch ally to israel, but the same has never been returned.
For me they can Foxtrot Oscar.
Having said that Burnham’s move is idiotic, as one would expect.
What a sh!tshow.
After 78 years of terrorist attacks culminating in the brutal barbarity of Oct 7 is it any wonder more and more Israeli’s support further settlements in Judea and Samaria? They want to keep themselves safe and ensure their way of life continues by forcing the Muslim bastards as far away from them as possible and keeping them away. If only European governments had the same idea.
Trouble is the muslim bastards they force away will probably end up in a dingy being invited into the UK by our weak government.
So all this shouting and screaming and finger pointing is only about the trade we do with the West Bank settlements, not the whole of Israel? From what I can see it’s worth a grand total of approx £38 million a year.
I also read the other day that most of the oil and gas drilling off the Falklands is licensed by the UK to a couple of Israeli energy companies.
We obviously won’t be cancelling all the arms deals we’ve got with Israel, and we don’t want to lose any of our security/spying connections.
So am I getting it wrong if I suggest this is just a bunch of politicians playing dangerously silly games, in order to look important?
Oh, and I also see Miliband reckons he’s a “proud British Jew”. He’s a liar.
The problem for the UK is that Israel is calling the shots and now we have been lined up for target practice. This is extremely serious and almost unbelievable – except when you remember whose decision it is.
A couple of hours later.
Labour = anti-Jewish. Always was, always will be. Jew-hating is entrenched in Socialism.
And Mad Ed is an atheist as you’d expect from a communist and not a “proud Jew” as he claims.
Louise Haigh appears to be wearing a keffiyeh in parliament today as she supports Ed Milliband’s policy on the Palestinian lands.
It makes me want to buy something
made in Israel.
Keter garden furniture is pretty good
The UN Charter incorporates the League of Nations mandates. The Mandate for Palestine confers the right of Jews to settle anywhere in that territory – including what is now called “the West Bank”.
I though the madleft was a keen supporter of what it calls “international law” …
“I though the madleft was a keen supporter of what it calls “international law””
Only when it suits them
In spades.
But it is the right thing to do.
Ah, yes, we all know about doing-the-right-thing.
What next, the greater good?
It won’t be long nefore a vote at the UN decides that the Malvinas belong to the Argies. Then Lord ‘Haw-Haw’ Hermer will probably decide that Britain hands them over due to ‘International Law’. And while we’re at it, no doubt Burnham and Miliband will decide that Gibraltar should be handed over to Spain along with a few billion quid.
England belongs to Wales, Oz to the Abos, America to the Mohawks and Apache, Turkey to the Hittites and Iraq to the Sumerians.
Europe belongs to the Romans, Asia to the Mongols, Africa to Johnny Bushman, the Falklands to the penguins and Gibraltar to Neanderthal Man.
Fiat justitia ruat coelum.
What about the Sioux and the Iroquois? And the Vikings? And Amy, you know, her from three million years ago in east Africa or somewhere?
Childish.
Labour is so shallow and the whole left is so venal they are not interested in the broad national interest or in justice but in point scoring in ways their demented supporters ask for.
Add in the dependence of Labour on Muslim votes and there you have it.
Last sentence. Indeed, playing to the gallery.