CIJR | Canadian Institute for Jewish Research
L'institut Canadien de Recherches sur le Judaisme

Analysis

Keir Starmer’s Blackmailing of Israel Is a Depraved New Low

Sir Keir Starmer (Holborn & St Pancras) | UK Parliament | Flickr
Get this image on: Flickr
Sir Keir Starmer (Holborn & St Pancras) | UK Parliament | Flickr Get this image on: Flickr

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Brendan O’Neill
Spiked, July 29, 2025

“He is sacrificing an ally at the altar of narrow self-interest.”

With ‘allies’ like Keir Starmer, who needs enemies? Today the PM said Britain will recognise Palestine unless Israel agrees to a ceasefire in Gaza.

This, truly, is a new low for this government. It is moral blackmail masquerading as diplomacy. It is a barely veiled threat against a supposed ally. Starmer is essentially telling Israel that unless it lays down its arms, Britain will reward its enemies. This will go down in history as one of the most scandalous betrayals of a ‘friend’ of modern time.

Starmer says he will recognise Palestine in September, ahead of the United Nations General Assembly, unless Israel bows to his demands. Israel, he says, must call a ceasefire in Gaza, end the ‘appalling’ suffering there, and commit to a ‘wider peace plan’ that delivers a ‘two-state solution’. And if it doesn’t, Britain will join the 147 other nations that recognise Palestine. Shorter version: do as I say, or suffer the consequences.

The imperial arrogance is off the scale. Maybe Starmer thinks it’s the 1920s and there’s still a British Mandate for Palestine that lets London boss around the Jews and Arabs of the Middle East. To make such haughty demands of any ally at war would be bad enough – to make them of an ally that is fighting a brutal battle against an army of anti-Semites that hates the West as much as it does Jews is flat-out psychotic. … [To read the full article, click here]

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