{"id":219713,"date":"2026-09-08T11:26:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-08T11:26:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/219713\/"},"modified":"2026-09-08T11:26:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-08T11:26:11","slug":"why-andy-burnham-is-taking-on-israel-over-the-west-bank-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/219713\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Andy Burnham is taking on Israel over the West Bank \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Britain\u2019s move to impose an effective trade embargo on Israel\u2019s West Bank<\/a> settlements is fraught with diplomatic and economic risk. Yet insiders say it also represents a political opportunity for British prime minister Andy Burnham\u2019s<\/a> Labour government. <\/p>\n

Britain\u2019s new foreign secretary Ed Miliband is due to give details to the House of Commons<\/a> on Tuesday of a UK <\/a>ban on goods and services from the settlements, in response to Israel<\/a> pushing ahead with controversial plans to build in the sensitive E1 zone of the West Bank.<\/p>\n

Critics of the Israeli move say it would cut the territory in two, making a Palestinian<\/a> state there unviable. Rather than an unfortunate side effect of the settlement expansion, this may well be Israel\u2019s aim, judging by the belligerent statements of some of the most senior members of Binyamin Netanyahu\u2019s<\/a> government.<\/p>\n

Miliband, who when he was Labour leader pushed for British recognition of a Palestinian state a decade before it happened, says the issue is a \u201cred line\u201d that Israel has crossed.<\/p>\n

He has promised a \u201creset\u201d of relations with the Jewish state, which has reacted with fury and is threatening to recognise Argentina\u2019s claim over the Falklands Islands in retaliation.<\/p>\n

The diplomatic risk is obvious, as Britain announces the move just weeks before Burnham is expected to meet the volatile US <\/a>president and Israel ally Donald Trump<\/a> for the first time, on the margins of a United Nations gathering in New York.<\/p>\n

The US ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, has already accused Britain of \u201cJew hate\u201d \u2013 an interesting accusation to fire at Miliband, whose family heritage is Jewish.<\/p>\n

There is also clear economic risk, given the fact that several US states have on their statute books laws that prevent US companies trading with countries that boycott Israel. Huckabee also claimed that a quarter of the pharmaceuticals used in Britain originate in Israel, saying: \u201cAre they willing to give those up?\u201d<\/p>\n

Israel\u2019s government has said it will respond. \u201cIf Britain acts against Israel, Israel will act against Britain,\u201d said Gideon Saar, the Jewish state\u2019s foreign minister.<\/p>\n

\"IsraeliIsraeli president Binyamin Netanyahu with US president Donald Trump at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida, last year. Photograph: Tierney L Cross\/The New York Times<\/p>\n

Labour sources also suggested the sanctions move by Miliband, fully backed by Burnham, would face pushback in Britain from those associated with the defence, security and healthcare sectors.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd that\u2019s before you get to the foreign policy ramifications, such as the US attitude to the Falklands,\u201d said one senior party figure.<\/p>\n

Apart from the depth of the proposed sanctions, which would go further than anything proposed by the Irish Government, the timing of Burnham and Miliband\u2019s move is interesting, so close to the Labour Party conference in Liverpool starting on September 27th and shortly before the Holborn and St Pancras byelection in Keir Starmer\u2019s old constituency. Labour will battle the Green Party, which has taken votes from Labour\u2019s left flank for years, especially among Muslims, over Starmer\u2019s perceived softness on Israel in the past.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s more about the message than the substance,\u201d said one senior party figure. \u201cIt will be popular with the party [grassroots] and the public, and not unhelpful ahead of the byelection.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another insider said the timing so close to Labour\u2019s conference was \u201cdeliberate\u201d to excite the left-wing activists that Starmer\u2019s ill-fated reign had alienated.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey really need to get that flank back,\u201d said one MP.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0UK facing backlash over trade ban with Israeli West Bank settlementsOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Burnham can credibly argue he has Nigel Farage\u2019s right-wing Reform UK on the run, given Labour has overtaken it in polls. Now he has his sights set on reclaiming ground from the Greens to the left. <\/p>\n

Rather than risking a divide in Labour \u2013 some of its MPs are critical of what they see as gesture politics \u2013 Burnham\u2019s big gamble is that he can galvanise his party at Labour\u2019s big conference in Liverpool. A survivable row with Trump won\u2019t do him any harm within his own party, either.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, many in Britain\u2019s Jewish community, shaken by recent attacks, watch on in fear and despair.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Britain\u2019s move to impose an effective trade embargo on Israel\u2019s West Bank settlements is fraught with diplomatic and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":219714,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[73961],"tags":[28914,6481,12,379,243,264,4018,317,12288,271,7861],"class_list":["post-219713","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-andy-burnham","tag-andy-burnham","tag-binyamin-netanyahu","tag-donald-trump","tag-house-of-commons","tag-israel","tag-keir-starmer","tag-nigel-farage","tag-palestine","tag-reform-uk","tag-uk","tag-united-nations-un"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@people\/117235180276485824","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219713","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=219713"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219713\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/219714"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=219713"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=219713"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=219713"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}