Britain is in the throes of a general election. The nation goes to the polls on July 4. All the indications are that the Labour party will sweep the board with a resounding win, and that its leader, Sir Keir Starmer, will be Britain’s next prime minister.

On June 13 the party published the manifesto on which it is fighting the election. Amid a plethora of domestic and international policy commitments, the manifesto turns briefly to the Middle East. “Palestinian statehood,” it declares, “is the inalienable right of the Palestinian people. It is not in the gift of any neighbor” [in other words, Israel], “and is also essential to the long-term security of Israel.”

The manifesto commits a future Labour government to recognizing a Palestinian state “as a contribution to a renewed peace process which results in a two-state solution, with a safe and secure Israel alongside a viable and sovereign Palestinian state.”

Appalled by the Hamas attack of October 7, Starmer stood shoulder-to-shoulder with UK prime minister Rishi Sunak, US president Joe Biden, and most Western political leaders, in proclaiming Israel’s right to defend itself. His stance was not acceptable to two entities he faces on his own political terrain. One is the powerful hard-left element within his party that, since taking over as leader from Jeremy Corbyn, he has managed to disempower and partially subdue. The other is the strong Muslim presence in some Labour-held constituencies.

Labour’s pro-Palestine component began to assert itself on October 7 itself, with scattered voices approving the Hamas attack. The collateral civilian deaths and casualties arising from the IDF campaign........

© Eurasia Review