Although Sir Keir Starmer is no Anti-Semite, the party behind him has a hatred of Israel that is not expressed against any other country, suggesting – well, you understand. Several times his backbenchers brought Private Member’s Bills demanding recognition of a Palestinian state or that Israel alone be accused of a vile crime: an international Bill of Attainder.
Any sensible new government will need to normalise relations. This can start with writing two letters:
Table of Contents
Letters
To the Secretary-General of the United Nations:
In September 2025, the United Kingdom notified the United Nations that it recognised the State of Palestine. The matter having been reconsidered, the United Kingdom has withdrawn such recognition forthwith, and wishes to notify the United Nations that the United Kingdom does not recognise the purported State of Palestine and will not extend diplomatic privilege to persons claiming to represent it.
This decision has also been notified to Israel, being the state most closely interested in the matter.
To the Ambassador of Israel to the United Kingdom:
In September 2025, the government of United Kingdom declared that we recognised a State of Palestine as if an independent state. The matter having been reconsidered, the United Kingdom has withdrawn such recognition forthwith, and wishes to assure the State of Israel that we neither recognise such a purported State of Palestine nor will the United Kingdom extend diplomatic privilege to persons claiming to represent it.
This decision has also been notified to the United Nations.
Further letter to the Ambassador of Israel to the United Kingdom:
We note that certain inconvenience has been caused by the retention of the British Embassy to Israel in Tel Aviv, while your government institutions are in Jerusalem.
We must reaffirm a longstanding principle that while His Majesty’s Government for the United Kingdom may recognise states, we take no position on where the capital or capitals of a state may be located, considering it a matter of fact and practice where a state chooses to establish its governing institutions.
We take note that the State of Israel has located in Jerusalem its chief governing institutions, and specifically its Ministry of Foreign Affairs to whom our ambassador is accredited, Accordingly, we have instructed our Ambassador to Israel to relocate his official office to our Consulate in Jerusalem, which thereby becomes the Embassy. We wish nevertheless to retain the premises in Tel Aviv as a Consulate and as an annex to the Embassy.
We request such reaccreditation from the Government of Israel as may be appropriate for these changes, and trust that you may transmit this request, with our good wishes, to the Government of Israel.
Other matters
During the course of calming the yapping backbenchers, a partial armaments export ban was imposed, just when Israel needed arms for defence. That should be lifted on the first day, and any other measures passed in the same vein.
The United Kingdom need not be fully engaged with the Abraham Accords, but recognising them as a way to peace in the region it should be an aim of foreign policy to place incentives for Arab states and others to odopt the accords. If this means recognisng Moroccan sovereignty over the Western Sahara as the United States has done, so be it (and arguably we should accepted that as reality many years ago). There may be other concessions that can be made to bring countries to the peace table.