British moves to recognize Palestinian state as diplomatic crowbar for restoring peace process

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer announced that the UK will recognize that Palestine’s national status is a major change in Britain’s foreign policy.

If Israel takes “substantial steps to end the shocking situation in Gaza, agree to a ceasefire and commits to a long-term, sustainable peace, “substantial steps that restore the prospect of a two-state solution”.

Israel’s immediate rejection of his statement means that Steamer’s speaker writer can now begin working on what he said at the UN General Assembly in September. A senior British official said Britain’s recognition of Palestine looks “irreversible”.

Starmer would not expect that Britain’s policy changes would soon produce an independent Palestinian state – from the perspective of many Israelis, the best time would never be – but diplomatic sources say it is to empower both sides, Israelis and Palestinians. The British hoped they could shock them, thinking that peace might be possible.

It was not easy, not only because Hamas killed 1,200 people, including hundreds of Israeli civilians, and took hostages on October 7, 2023, followed by a revenge response from Israel, killing thousands of civilians and leaving Gaza in the ruins.

This is also because every attempt to achieve peace fails. Years of peace talks in the 1990s ended in blood. Since then, every attempt to recover them has crashed.

Israel’s rejection came minutes after Keir Starmer spoke on Downing Street. In the evening, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu posted strong words on social media condemnation.

“Starmer rewards Hamas’ enormous terrorism and punishes its victims. Today, the jihadist countries on the Israeli border will threaten Britain tomorrow.”

“The app-foot against jihad terrorists always fails. This will also disappoint you. This won’t happen.”

Netanyahu denied that Israel caused starvation and disaster in Gaza. If he accepts the UK’s postponement conditions, his government will collapse. Instead of granting them independence, he relies on the support of supernational extremists who want to annex the occupied territory and force the Palestinians to leave.

But Netanyahu is not their prisoner. He built a career against a two-state solution, which could create peace by establishing an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel. He said earlier this month that the Palestine state will be the “launch platform” that destroys Israel on October 7.

Netanyahu will hope to get strong support from the U.S. government. Its position is to recognize that the Palestinian state now rewards Hamas terrorism.

Donald Trump told reporters that he flew back to the United States after a golf episode in Scotland and that he did not support the UK’s move.

The issue of Palestinian sovereignty could be another factor in transatlantic relations.

It wasn’t until recent weeks that Keir Starmer was convinced that the timing was right. But the pictures of the Palestinian children starving to death in Gaza are the last straw after so much killing and destruction.

In Downing Street and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Labour and the UK’s broader attitude.

Britain’s decision to join France to recognize Palestine is another sign of Israel’s growing diplomatic isolation. Two major Western allies among the United Nations Security Council permanent members, Britain and France, rejected Israel’s attempt to block their recognition of Palestine when they met in New York in September.

In New York, after Starmer’s statement, British Foreign Secretary David Lammy received applause when he announced the United Nations’ decision on a two-state solution and recognition of the Palestinian state.

He dismissed the allegation that Palestinian independence could be fatal to Israel.

“There is no contradiction between supporting Israel’s security and supporting the Palestinian nation. Indeed, the opposite is true.”

“Let me know: it is wrong for the Netanyahu government to reject a two-state solution – it is wrong morally and wrong strategically.”

A British official said the atmosphere was electric because Rami told deputies that the UK’s announcement was “with historic hands on our shoulders”. Rami continued to penetrate deep into the Palestinian British Empire past, which was deeply intertwined with the roots of conflict between Jews and Arabs to control British land.

Britain captured Jerusalem from the Ottoman Empire in 1917 and controlled Palestine until 1948, exhausted and unable to handle the full-scale war between the Arabs and Jews at that time, and it handed the responsibility to the United Nations and leave Palestine. Israel’s first prime minister, David Ben Gurion, immediately declared independence, and Israel defeated the invasion of Arab troops.

At the United Nations, David Lammy recalled that his former Foreign Minister had signed a typing letter in 1917 by Arthur Balfour, who signed a typing letter promising to “incline to live in a country where Palestine lives in the Jewish countries”.

But the document, known as the Balfour Declaration, also states: “Nothing needs to be done, which may harm the civil and religious rights of the Palestinian non-Jewish community.” It does not use the word Arabic, but that is what it means.

Rami said the UK could be proud of its foundational way of helping Israel, but its commitment to the Palestinians has not been retained, a historical injustice that continues to show. ”

The conflict has been fueled by the conflict and shaped it. A time traveler dating back to the 1920s Palestine will find tension and violence frustrating.

Britain hopes to end the suffering in Gaza, build peace in the Middle East in a way that remedies historical injustice to restore a two-state solution.

The New York conference where he spoke was chaired by France and Saudi Arabia. It produced a seven-page document designed to create a way to restore a two-state solution, including the condemnation of the Arab state of Hamas and its October 7 attack on Israel.

After the collapse of the peace process that really hoped began in the 1990s, the peace window through the two-state solution seemed to be closed.

Britain acknowledged the Palestine decision as a diplomatic crowbar trying to reopen.