Is it cream or jam first for prince’s scones?

It is the most politically sensitive trip he has ever undertaken, entering a diplomatic minefield in the Middle East.

As the Duke of Cambridge set foot in Jerusalem on Monday night for the British royal family’s first trip to Israel, he was faced with settling a debate that has raged for decades. Not the seemingly impossible question of Israeli and Palestinian lands, of course, but the age-old issue of cream versus jam.

The Duke, who landed in Tel Aviv, was taken to the King David Jerusalem Hotel where a freshly baked pile of scones had been prepared for him.

There, according to Sheldon Ritz, the hotel’s director of operations, he was greeted with tea imported from England — the “best we can buy” — as well as fresh milk, cream and strawberry jam for his scone.

“We heard that there’s a big debate in England about whether you put the cream or the jam on first, so we’ll leave them to the side and let the prince decide,” he told a newspaper.

The scone debate is well-known to the Royal family. Earlier this year, the Prince of Wales, who also holds the title of Duke of Cornwall, quizzed a small boy in the county after seeing him eat the baked treat.

“Have you got that the right way round?” he asked jovially, as he spotted cream first then jam on top, the preferred method in Devon. In Cornwall, scones are eaten with jam first, topped with cream.