Same old Mid East debate? Maybe not
AN EARLY indication of how this Parliament might pan out on the discussion of Israel-Palestinian relations came with the debate in the Commons last week.
There were numerous copyand-paste questions from MPs about settlement building, Balfour and funding for the Palestinian Authority, which, admirable as they may have been, could have been plucked from any such debate in recent years and added little. But I spotted a few more notable points during the three-hour session.
The dozens of references to Donald Trump make clear that until or unless the US President reveals his true position, British politicians will be in limbo. There is only one true one power-player who can affect things on the ground in Jerusalem and Ramallah, and he is yet to properly engage.
The elections of Conservatives Paul Masterton — in East Renfrewshire — and 29-year-old Ross Thomson means that the past two years of SNP-dominated views on Israel from Scotland will, at least, be tempered. For that, Scottish Jews will be grateful. Both MPs made positive contributions, with Mr Thomson raising the “tremendous synergies” between Aberdeen, the city he represents in Westminster, and Tel Aviv — not necessarily a link that has been made before.
It was also striking that this debate was called by the government — the first such session, it was claimed, in a decade.
Usually it is the backbenchers who bring such discussions to the chamber, often doing the bidding of lobby groups on either side. That the government itself sought a debate on Israel and the Palestinians may be an indication of Tory intentions to take the matter seriously over the next year or two. Or maybe not; the ease with which Emily Thornberry, Labour’s Shadow Foreign Secretary, peppered the government benches with free hits suggests the Conservatives won’t have an easy ride over Israel.
And that in itself is quite a statement, given the stated policies of Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party.
Ms Thornberry attacked the nonappearance from the debate of Boris Johnson, the Foreign Secretary; the absence from the Tory manifesto of any mention of the Middle East; and successfully chided Tory MPs on the need to “engage on the substance of the debate”.
Nonetheless, the return of Alistair Burt as Middle East Minister should substantially raise the level of engagement and expertise.
But dare I say, the prospect of this Parliament managing what those of the past 69 years have failed to do, and oversee a peaceful resolution to the conflict, remains slim to none.
When Wera Hobhouse rose to make her maiden speech in the Commons, many Jewish observers got a shock.
The German-born Bath MP used the opportunity to deliver a moving explanation of her mother’s family’s persecution in Hamburg during the war.
The Liberal Democrat tells me her great-grandfather assimilated “like many German Jews during the second half of the 19th century”, and that her mother and grandmother “identified as Christians”.
Of course that did not stop the Nazis pursuing those family members who had not fled, and at least one relative was sent to Dachau before escaping to Scandinavia.
Ms Hobhouse said her mother’s experience — she suffered under the Nuremburg Laws — was “the incentive for me early in life to get involved in politics, so that we never again fall for extreme right-wing views on race, intolerance, exclusion and persecution”.
The presence in Parliament of a figure such as Ms Hobhouse — a former artist, journalist and teacher, fluent in three languages and with as varied a set of life experiences as you are likely to find — can surely only enhance our politics, in an era in which voters have made clear their unhappiness with career politicians.