Starmer faces call to ‘sit this one out’ on Gaza amid US-UK ‘disagreement’
Sir Keir Starmer has faced a call to “sit this one out” on Gaza, after the Prime Minister warned the Israeli government against pursuing its plan to take control of Gaza City.
Washington’s ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee also suggested that Sir Keir would have lost Britain the Second World War, had he been in No 10 at the time.
Earlier on Friday, US vice president JD Vance described a “disagreement” about how the US and UK could achieve their “common objectives” in the Middle East, and said Donald Trump’s administration had “no plans to recognise a Palestinian state”.
Demilitarisation
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office has unveiled new principles for military action which include “the demilitarisation of the Gaza Strip”, “Israeli security control in the Gaza Strip” and “the establishment of an alternative civil administration that is neither Hamas nor the Palestinian Authority”.
The Israel Defence Forces “will prepare for taking control of Gaza City while distributing humanitarian assistance to the civilian population outside the combat zones”.
After Sir Keir described the decision as being “wrong” and called for a “surge in humanitarian aid”, Mr Huckabee wrote: “So Israel is expected to surrender to Hamas and feed them even though Israeli hostages are being starved?
“Did UK surrender to Nazis and drop food to them? Ever heard of Dresden, PM Starmer?
“That wasn’t food you dropped. If you had been PM then UK would be speaking German.”
In a follow-up post, the ambassador suggested Sir Keir “ought to sit this one out”.
Bloodshed
In a statement, Sir Keir had said: “The Israeli government’s decision to further escalate its offensive in Gaza is wrong, and we urge it to reconsider immediately.
“This action will do nothing to bring an end to this conflict or to help secure the release of the hostages. It will only bring more bloodshed.
“Every day the humanitarian crisis in Gaza worsens and hostages taken by Hamas are being held in appalling and inhuman conditions.
“What we need is a ceasefire, a surge in humanitarian aid, the release of all hostages by Hamas and a negotiated solution.
“Hamas can play no part in the future of Gaza and must leave as well as disarm.
“Together with our allies, we are working on a long-term plan to secure peace in the region as part of a two-state solution, and ultimately achieve a brighter future for Palestinians and Israelis.
“But without both sides engaging in good faith negotiations, that prospect is vanishing before our eyes.”
Conditions
Sir Keir has pledged to recognise a Palestinian state in September unless the Israeli government meets a series of conditions towards ending the war in Gaza.
These include taking “substantive steps to end the appalling situation in Gaza”, “agreeing to a ceasefire, and making clear there will be no annexations in the West Bank”.
At Foreign Secretary David Lammy’s grace-and-favour retreat in Kent, Mr Vance said the UK “is going to make its decision” on Palestinian recognition.
“We have no plans to recognise a Palestinian state,” he said.
“I don’t know what it would mean to really recognise a Palestinian state given the lack of functional government there.”
Mr Vance added: “There’s a lot of common objectives here. There is some, I think, disagreement about how exactly to accomplish those common objectives, but look, it’s a tough situation.”
Meanwhile, Mr Lammy joined several allied foreign ministers in “strongly” rejecting Israel’s plans for Gaza, warning they “will aggravate the catastrophic humanitarian situation, endanger the lives of the hostages, and further risk the mass displacement of civilians”.
International humanitarian law
A joint statement from the foreign ministers of the UK, Australia, Italy, Germany and New Zealand said: “The plans that the Government of Israel has announced risk violating international humanitarian law.
“Any attempts at annexation or of settlement extension violate international law.”
The statement added: “We are united in our commitment to the implementation of a negotiated two-state solution as the only way to guarantee that both Israelis and Palestinians can live side by side in peace, security, and dignity.
“A political resolution based on a negotiated two-state solution requires the total demilitarisation of Hamas and its complete exclusion from any form of governance in the Gaza Strip, where the Palestinian Authority must have a central role.”
A UN Security Council meeting to discuss Israel’s plan had been due to take place on Saturday, but has been rescheduled to Sunday at around 3pm UK time.
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What do the US have over us. Is it the weapons? In which case time to nominate the US as a hostile state and move to the EU.
And Huckabee is an idiot with regards WWII. The US is at the moment doing a hitler on itself. I will not take lessons from a fascist state.
They control the nukes and their economy is hugely powerful. There are also a series of commercial contracts with US entities and the debt we owe them thanks to the recovery efforts post WW2. They have continued (up until recently) to militarily support and defend the UK. Basically… we outsourced our defence capabilities and we’re tiny. I don’t believe moving to the EU is a great move either. There are long standing issues that don’t agree with the UK. The UK needs to focus on itself, address its inequality and begin restoring the country becoming more and more self reliant.… Read more »
I think we have repaid our debts post ww2 and Falklands with 2 gulf warns, supporting the iron dome and USA took its fair share of German war tech including the nuclear flying saucers. We don’t owe them anything. If Sir Kier grows a pair and calls out the genocide and ethnic cleansing in Palestine, they will stop. Frump is distracted with epstein files for now.
The United Nations Genocide Convention came into effect in January 1951. Article Two of the convention defines genocide as “any of the following acts committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group, as such”: Killing members of the group – Hamas has sworn to kill Jews everywhere. Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group – Hamas has continually done this to Israel since its inception. October 7th was just another instance. Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction… Read more »
Under this definition of genocide, the zionists are guilty of ethnically cleansing a semitic Palestinian population. Hamas is a product of Netanyahu designed to limit Mahmoud Abbas’ power and he allowed them to be funded by Qatar. There is no way that Mossad were unaware of their activities including the terrorist incident in October 2023. You pretending that the zionist government is innocent changes nothing.
Take control, eradicate the Hamas animals and free the Palestinian people from their foul grip, get the hostages out and create a peaceful Palestinian state backed by the Arab coalition. Simple. The key here being the destruction of Hamas.
That needs to be done without the loss of more life. Giving freedom to the Palestinians from Hamas may be all well and good – but not if many are not alive to see it or Gaza itself is just a pile of rubble. Why can’t Mossad just go in and take them out? Would flattening Gaza, killing thousands actually eradicate Hamas ? I doubt it, it’ll just do the opposite by promoting the recruitment of more terrorists.
Considering Hamas was the brain child of Netanyahu to oppose Mahmoud Abbas, I would never consider the evil zionist government could ever conceive of taking the moral high ground ever again. Hamas and the zionist government need to be gone for peace to ever have a chance on the promised land.
We need to free the Palestinians from the evil grip of the zionist government. There will never be peace as long as Hamas and the zionist government exist. Both need to go or just get in a room and have away at each other and leave the rest of the folk alone.
Israel is not going anywhere. Hamas, on the other hand, are rapidly heading for the exit. Not the wealthy leaders living in Qatar who became rich siphoning aid money into their own bank accounts of course. They are protected – until Mossad takes them out.
I don’t want zion to go anywhere. You on the other hand want the Palestinians obliterated under the pretext of destroying Hamas which by the way, you have so far failed to achieve.
“Mr Huckabee wrote: “So Israel is expected to surrender to Hamas and feed them even though Israeli hostages are being starved?”
Israel is starving the people of Palastine and the hostages who are in Gaza.
Allah willing, Sir Kier will just say stop the genocide and ethnic cleansing in Palestine now. We don’t owe the US anything. We stood by them when they destroyed Iraq and any debt owed fron the Falklands is paid off.
Palestinian territory – an area with ill-defined borders useful as a base for attacking Israel.
Palestinian state – an area with fixed borders useful as a base for attacking Israel.
Spot the difference.
Right now, the only killing, attacking and ethnic cleansing of a semitic Palestinians is being done by the evil zionist government. Not difficult to spot.
Dresden was something we should not have done. Unfortunately the invention of war crimes came too late. However, I believe the UK should make reparations to the people of Dresden.
The PM should come out and speak out against the Dresden actions, speak of regret and point out that the UK willingly signed up to the Geneva Conventions since and it should also point out its record however blemished it might be (Afghanistan, Iraq) on upholding human rights and upholding the geneva conventions.