Starmer – what on earth was he thinking?
JVL Introduction
Susie Becher asks what on earth Keir Starmer thinks he is up to with his “conditional recognition” of the state of Palestine.
It is not clever politics. On the contrary, it undermines the fact that the Palestinians’ right to exercise self-determination is inalienable and anchored in international law.
Becher is most concerned about the effect on Israeli public opinion.
Starmer’s stance reinforces the claims of Netanyahu, Ben Gvir et al that recognition of Palestinian statehood undermines Israeli sovereignty, endangers its security, and rewards Hamas for the atrocities it committed on October 7.
It encourages them to dig in.
RK
This article was originally published by Times of Israel Blogs on Tue 5 Aug 2025. Read the original here.
Mr. Prime Minister, What Were You Thinking?
Loading article text…
I don’t believe Starmer believes in anything. He is one of those opportunists that will do or say anything to give him an advantage. Sadly at least 30% of the official labour party are the same. That’s why Corbyn’s authenticity pulls such popular support
Useful article; however, it seems to approve of Macron’s statement. His statement spoke of a ‘demilitarized’ Palestinian State and in what is around twenty percent of historic Palestine. What is required is a secular Palestinian State in historic Palestine: if the so-called International Community supported the ‘right of return’ we would be on the road to this.
The PM’s email to party members (3 August 2025) began:
“The suffering must end in the Middle East.”
And ended:
“Because I know that is what the British people desperately want to see.”
My reply was as follows:
3 Aug 2025
Dear Sir Keir,
Thank you for your email to members.
To make recognition of the state of Palestine dependent on actions by Israel gives Israel a veto: “unless the Israeli government takes substantive steps to end the appalling situation in Gaza, agree to a ceasefire and commit to a long-term, sustainable peace-reviving the prospect of a Two State Solution.” Israel will exercise this veto. Hamas has already agreed to your conditions, dependent on Israel totally withdrawing from Gaza and signing a guaranteed ceasefire and lasting peace agreement.
Your public acknowledgement that Gaza is starving comes a long time after widespread, gross levels of hunger have been graphically depicted daily on TV. When referring to: “Starving babies, Children too weak to stand. All because of a catastrophic failure of aid.”, you held back from naming Israel as the deliberate architect and perpetrator of this “catastrophic failure of aid”.
Now numbers of deaths from contrived starvation are growing, mainly babies and young children, this in addition to over 60,000 Palestinians murdered by the IDF using the blunt, indiscriminate instrument of 2,000lb bombs, in the last twenty-two months, a terrible carnage which demands severe sanctions on Israel: ending all contact, ending the sale of weapons, in particular all F-35 fighter/bomber parts.
Contrary to the narrative that this bloodbath started on 7 October 2023 when Hamas and other groups broke out of the prison that is the Gaza Strip, killing c1,200 people and taking c250 hostages, the origins go back much further….
[cut to our limit of 300 words – admin]
Against humanitarian law, hunger has been weaponised by Israel throughout Gaza resulting, as forecast, in mass starvation. This has finally been acknowledged by our government. At no time to my knowledge has the plight of the people of Gaza been attributed to a combination of the barbarity of the IDF, the most extreme right-wing Knesset ever, and Netanyahu, a PM subject to an arrest warrant for crimes against humanity issued by the International Court of Justice.
Victim and the perpetrator are easily identifiable in this unspeakably one-sided conflict. As a country we must undertake a total withdrawal of contact and interaction with the genocidal State of Israel and do all we can to encourage other countries to do likewise. Israel’s on-going wanton killing has to end. Given that the US continues to fund and arm Israel, BDS is the overdue non-military action which could eventually lead to peace.
I believe this is “what the British people desperately want to see.”
J E Dougall,
Long-time Party member.
This fits twixt my two posts you have kindly published. Any chance you could also publish this, below? Thanks, E.D.
For decades Israelis have attacked and killed Palestinians, evicted them from their homes, demolished villages, stolen their animals, uprooted olive trees, burnt their crops and built so many illegal settlements and infrastructure in the West Bank that it resembles a piece of Swiss cheese or Victorian lace.
There are c700,000 Israelis now living in illegal ‘settlements’ in the West Bank, making a “two state solution” more and more difficult if not impossible.
Following 7/Oct/2023 the merciless attacks on Gaza have been incessant and disproportionate, killing 60,000 plus. Estimates vary but something like 70% of homes in Gaza have been demolished or rendered uninhabitable, leaving hundreds of thousands of Gazans without adequate shelter, displaced by the IDF and forcibly moved from one place to another multiple times. All universities and schools have been systematically destroyed, almost all hospitals unable to function, amputations carried out without anaesthetic, virtually all medical and sanitary items, baby formula non-existent, power, clean water, sewage disposal systems all destroyed. Since the IDF and GHF employees took control of food distribution from UNRWA, MSF and other charities, hungry Gazans have had to walk miles to be herded into queues at one of the only four distribution points, resulting in panic and confusion as desperate people after walking miles scramble and fight for a share of the inadequate quantities of food delivered, ensuring hunger is always present.
Since the IDF and GHF took over food distribution more than 1,000 Gazans queuing for food have been killed by those same IDF and GHF employees.