David Cameron is giving succour to our enemies
The Foreign Secretary’s suggestion that Britain could recognise Palestine is dangerously premature
Judging by the spring in his step, Lord Cameron is immensely enjoying the new lease of life in politics his surprise appointment as Foreign Secretary has given him.
Whether it is appearing on American TV to explain Britain’s participation in air strikes against Yemen’s Houthi rebels, or striking an action-man pose while visiting conflict zones in Ukraine, Kosovo and Israel, the former prime minister is clearly relishing his return to front-line politics.
His job gives him the opportunity to draw on the vital experience he gleaned during the six years he spent in Downing Street. Among the highlights was his prominent role in overthrowing Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, the withdrawal of British forces from Afghanistan, and the controversy generated by his attempt to launch military action against Syria over the Assad regime’s use of chemical weapons, which was rejected in a crucial Commons vote in 2013.
Cameron’s experience of dealing with these and other major international crises, such as Russia’s initial invasion of Ukraine in 2014, has, at the very least, given him a good grounding in the ways of the world, as well as guaranteeing him access to the inner sanctums of global diplomacy, a useful attribute for any British foreign secretary. As Cameron himself quipped at a pre-christmas drinks reception, his stint in Downing Street was “the best apprenticeship for this job”.
Yet, even if Cameron’s experience has helped to raise the Sunak government’s profile in world affairs, it does not necessarily follow that his judgment is always sure-footed, as his recent musings on the vexed issue of Palestinian statehood have revealed.
Speaking at a glitzy reception in Westminster earlier this week, the Foreign Secretary made the stunning suggestion that the British government is giving consideration to formally recognising the creation of an independent Palestinian state.
British support for a two-state solution to the long-running Israelipalestinian dispute is nothing new, and has been official British policy since the pre-war mandate era. Then, British officials struggled to meet the competing claims for statehood of the Arabs and Jews.
Cameron’s remarks, though, where he intimated that Britain might preempt the outcome of any future peace negotiations by granting official recognition to a Palestinian state, indicated a dramatic shift in official British policy. They also demonstrated a disturbing lack of diplomatic tact at a time when Israel, a country that is supposed to be one of the UK’S closest allies, is engaged in an existential struggle against the Iranian-backed Hamas terrorists responsible for committing the worst atrocity in the Jewish state’s history.
The institutional pro-arab bias that courses through the corridors of King Charles Street is not a new phenomenon, and it could be that our Foreign Secretary has simply ingested the anti-israel Kool-aid at the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office without giving sufficient consideration to its implications.
Even so, the timing of his Lordship’s comments could not have been more ill-judged. It was only last November that he appeared visibly moved after visiting the scene of the carnage Hamas inflicted on innocent civilians in southern Israel. He said that he’d “seen things I will never forget” after visiting Kibbutz Be’eri, where more than 100 people were massacred.
Raising the prospect of recognising a Palestinian state when the Israeli people remain traumatised by the events of October 7, and when the fate of the 100 or so Israeli hostages still being held by Hamas hangs in the balance, is not the unequivocal demonstration of support Israel deserves to receive from a key ally in its hour of need.
Cameron’s remarks also serve to undermine the effectiveness of the Israel Defence Forces’ military campaign to hunt down the perpetrators of the October 7 massacres. Israel is already coming under significant pressure from Washington to accept a ceasefire before many of its key objectives have been achieved.
There may well be, in the months to come and once the Gaza conflict has finally ended, a moment when peace talks on resolving the Israel-palestinian issue can resume, and might even culminate in a grudging Israeli acceptance of Palestinian statehood. Such an outcome, though, is light years away from the reality on the ground, where the priority for Israelis of all political persuasions is to ensure that they never again suffer the horrors of a large-scale terrorist attack.
Another key consideration that makes Cameron’s comments on Palestinian statehood so dangerously premature is that, at the present time, all the indications suggest that the conflict is about to escalate to include Iran and other Hamas allies, such as Hezbollah and Yemen’s Houthi rebels.
With reports that Britain may soon deploy an aircraft carrier to the Middle East, the Foreign Secretary would be better advised to concentrate his efforts on securing global support for our attempt to prevent Iran and its terrorist proxies from making the situation in the Middle East worse, for both Israelis and Palestinians.
READ MORE at telegraph.co.uk/opinion