Schisms between the main parties and the EU are set to exacerbate underlying political tensions
Anne McElvoy: ‘This is not so much a question of ‘which side are you on, but ‘what do you actually support or condemn?”
Evacuation of civilians cannot proceed fast enough to offset the“humanitarian crisis”, which is under way and worsening. That will rapidly disrupt the unified front across and within parties in the UK on how to approach a multi-faceted crisis – and where it leaves Britain’s commitments and Middle East strategy.
The second reason is that there is simply no way that Israel will be constrained in its determination to take control of the Gaza Strip. Any Israeli government would hit back hard and one led by a bullish and angry Bibi Netanyahu, the more so. So talking about “proportionality” to a country in trauma is unlikely to have much effect – however fashionable a phrase.
There are many reasons for this, harking back to the Middle East alignments and antipathies of the Cold War. But the echoes are strong and durable and create headaches for leaders who would probably prefer to take the route of supportingThis leads however to difficult territory very fast – especially so for Keir Starmer and his shadow foreign secretary David Lammy. Part of his preparation to move from Opposition to power means that awkward choices become less fudgeable.
A short, if harsh, campaign will look more defensible than one in which the pictures of Israelis dying at the hands of Hamas are replaced by equally dreadful stories of Palestinians becoming the indiscriminate “collateral damage” of the counter-offensive. It is already apparent in one schism – the SNP’s rejection of the Labour-Tory unity in sorting Israel and leader Humza Yousaf’s declaration that “collective punishment” in Gaza cannot be justified. Most of this is unlikely to make a jot of difference to events unfolding in Israel and Gaza. But it will also shake the broader foreign policy kaleidoscope.
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