Oh, Perfidious Albion

How recognising a Palestinian state while hostages are still being held will not help anyone

No one quite knows who first coined the phrase ‘perfidious Albion’, but it was popularised by French-Spanish writer Augustin Louis de Ximenes in his poem L’Ere des Francais, following Great Britain's reversal on its support for French Revolutionaries.

It refers to acts of diplomatic duplicity in the pursuit of British self-interest. It has been used by everyone from Irish Catholics, angered by Britain's reneging on commitments to their rights, to Europeans who felt betrayed by Brexit.

It has been used frequently regarding the 100-year Israel-Arab conflict – unsurprisingly, as Britain promised the same patch of land to three different groups of people as it attempted to snatch the territory of what became known as Mandatory Palestine from the crumbling Ottoman Empire.

Today’s announcement by Keir Starmer recognising a Palestinian state falls into the category of perfidious Albion, except this time it is not in Britain’s interest, but it is in Labour’s. Because showing terrorists that killing, kidnapping, and raping is the path to recognition and statehood will, I have absolutely no doubt, come back to bite our nation.

As Matthew Syed writes in today’s Sunday Times: ‘Security insiders tell me that other jihadi networks also regard official British policy as an exoneration of terrorism as they busily recruit across the Middle East via propaganda pumped out daily over social media.’

I was proud of my country when we stood up for Ukraine against Putin’s empire-building. Our message was and remains that those who start wars are to be repelled. And yet our government is planning to reward Hamas for its invasion of Israel on October 7 2023.

Yes, Hamas wants all the land of Israel. However, it still sees this as a victory: last month, it described the decision of the UK government and other stupidly naïve Western countries to recognise a Palestinian state as ‘one of the fruits of October 7’. Ghazi Hamad, a senior operative, added: ‘We have proven that victory over Israel is not impossible and our weapons are a symbol of Palestinian honour’.

It is encouraging them.

Yesterday, the families of several hostages – of the 48 still being held, it is believed around 20 of them are still alive – wrote an open letter to Starmer explaining that by showing Hamas that terrorism wins by announcing that the UK intended to recognise a Palestinian state, he had ‘dramatically complicated efforts to bring home our loved ones’.

Hostage Evyatar David whose brother Ilay yesterday said: ‘This kind of recognition gives Hamas power to be stubborn in negotiations.

This morning, our hapless Deputy Prime Minister and former Foreign Secretary David Lammy was doing the broadcast round, trying to explain this decision to incredulous journalists. Watching him squirm as he tried to explain why it had to be done now – without saying the real reason – was excruciating.

Admitting that it would change nothing on the ground other than giving the Palestinian people ‘hope’ showed the full extent of his perfidy.

There’s no plan for who will run this imaginary state or what it will look like. He couldn’t explain how this statement would see the release of hostages and the surrender of Hamas – a proscribed terrorist group – or how we could stop Palestinians voting for more terror (especially having seen how fruitful the last lot were) unless we impose our will on them. Which is imperialism.

What’s more, Lammy seemed to think this new Palestinian state should be ‘based on 1967 borders’ even though these have never existed – they were 1967 armistice lines. It means he is proposing that the Israeli capital Jerusalem (still unrecognised as the Israeli capital by perfidious Albion) is taken from Israel.

Our Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, is claiming that this is the ‘moral’ thing to do. What hypocritical tosh.

He claims that the humanitarian crisis is worse than when he first made the threat. It is undoubtedly still there, but it is mainly not the fault of Israel, which has been allowing food into the embattled area in huge numbers. Over the past week, close to 1700 trucks were collected and distributed from the Gaza side of the Kerem Shalom and Zikim crossings.

This doesn’t mean it is getting to the right people, however. The UN has admitted that close to 90 per cent of trucks fail to reach their target as they are held up by Hamas, other armed militants, shopkeepers and desperate civilians.

Earlier this week, Hamas fired at UN teams and prevented the opening of a new humanitarian route in the southern Gaza Strip. They stole UN trucks and used them to create a barrier to food reaching people leaving Gaza City which is now under attack by the IDF.

Our government refuses to acknowledge these problems or to address what Hamas is doing to the Palestinian people. Or that Hamas leaders have repeatedly refused to surrender. Why are they protecting terrorists? Instead, they act as if this war could end tomorrow if Israeli PM Benyamin Netanyahu willed it. Hamas is given no agency for what it does to the Palestinian civilians.

I am not a fan of Netanyahu and think some in his far-right government are an abomination, but also believe this will do nothing to stop their increasing encroachment on the West Bank or settler violence, or – for that matter - the terrorist attacks coming out of the Palestinian areas. British governments have held onto this announcement of statehood for decades, using it as a trump card to be brandished when most necessary.

Squandering it at time when Hamas is still holding hostages simply shows Israelis that Britain is not a serious ally which can be trusted. As shadow chancellor, Mel Stride says: ‘It has taken the leverage off the table. And that’s not good foreign policy.’

There is nothing moral about this. It has been done shabbily. We can all see Labour MPs are feeling increasingly under pressure by constituents – one MP told me she received 400 letters a week. Some 37 constituencies have a Muslim population of more than 20 per cent, and Labour big hitters, including Wes Streeting and Jess Phillips, came just a whisper away from losing their previous safe seats because of the threat from pro-Gaza independents.

And it is not just a political threat. Many of the MPs have received death threats, and some have even seen their constituency offices attacked. Caving in to this is not how we should be running a democracy. The irony is that it won’t stop many of them from hating Starmer for being a Zionist and having a Jewish wife, or Labour for not being pro-Palestinian enough.

I have always believed in a two-state solution. I want Israelis and Palestinians to live in peace. I still believe – perhaps naively - it could happen one day. But not like this. Not in this way.