As the Guardian notes this morning:
The UK is expected to recognise a Palestinian state on Sunday after Israel failed to meet the conditions set out by Keir Starmer in July.
The prime minister is to make the announcement after concluding the humanitarian situation has deteriorated significantly in the past few weeks. The move comes despite pressure from the US and the families of hostages held by Hamas.
Except, as with everything in the Starmer world, what is said and what will happen are not the same thing. As the Telegraph noted in an email this morning:
Sir Keir Starmer will hit Hamas with new sanctions in an attempt to blunt criticism of his decision to recognise a Palestinian state.
The Prime Minister will harden his stance towards the terrorist group in a statement on Sunday, which will confirm that Britain intends to recognise an independent Palestine.
His approach will be seen as an attempt to placate Donald Trump, coming just days after the US president publicly criticised the UK's stance during his state visit.
You cannot recognise a state unless you do the three things.
The first is that you must recognise its free and independent existence.
The second is that you recognise its right to self-govern.
Third, you then must recognise its right to self-govern in the way it wants, and not in a way externally imposed on it.
Starmer is failing in all three. He is saying he will recognise Palestine but only if the Palestinians choose a government acceptable to Donald Trump (and by default, of course, Israel), which will then please him (showing who now truly governs the UK).
In other words, Starmer is not in any way recognising Palestine or the rights of the Palestinian people. At the same time, he is also refusing to acknowledge the lessons learned from past conflict societies, such as Northern Ireland and South Africa.
If Starmer thinks what he is doing will convince anyone of his good intent, then he is a fool.
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Isreal’s “offers” have been to agree to a sort of county council status for Palestine with a veto over “security.”
Meanwhile they have continued to annex land for settlements.
It seems this might be a similar sort of ‘recognition’.
Isreal’s propaganda now focuses on portraying all Palestinians as wanting to kill all the Jews and destroy Israel. Take that away and look at their case, little remains. The PLO recognised Isreal 30 years ago. Even the Hamas charter 2017 says their quarrel is not with Judaism but with Zionism.
The tragedy is that is the recognition by the West had taken place 25 years ago when the Arab League made their offer to recognise Israel, it is very unlikely we would be witnessing this genocide.
Israel has managed to alienate almost the whole world and even in the US support for them is falling. It’s wealth comes from hi-tech firms and the people who work there will not want periodic military service with all its risks. Most of them have other passports. The orthodox do not teach their children science or English making the Palestinians more employable.
But the settlers in the West Bank are religious fanatics who are also deeply racist. How they will be dealt with is the next pressing question.
Western hypocrisy again.
We were quite content to watch and welcome those who ran the Nazi and Imperial Japanese states take part in the rebuilding of their nations because we accepted their organisational abilities over their shit ideologies.
No such slack will be given to Palestine then. You don’t have to extend your brain much to explain why do you (white on brown person racism, anti-Muslim sentiment, the Gazan Riviera bollocks)?
Rumsfeld sacked all the Barth party members in Iraq and reduced the country to chaos. It is an argument for using local people who are up to the job. Compromises will have to be made.
From the Wall Street Journal:
“U.S. Plans $6 Billion in New Arms Sales to Israel
The large weapons transfers come after Israel’s airstrike in Qatar and need congressional approval
By Jared Malsin and Robbie Gramer
Sept. 19, 2025 1:04 pm ET”
This includes 30 AH-64 Apache attack helicopters which almost doubles the number of Israeli aircraft.
Sadly, it doesn’t look as though US support for Israel is falling, at least not amongst Mango Mussolini and his acolytes.
As for Starmer, he’s trying to save his own political skin as there’s a lot of pressure from the public and his own MPs to recognise the Palestinian state but this is not that. He’s slimy and not to be trusted; he’s playing games with people’s lives including the very young. What a vile politician and PM he is.
And I think Starmer has effectively been bounced into even this half-hearted recognition by the fact that, with France’s move, almost all of the UK’s neighbouring countries, and with Canada’s and Australia’s moves, almost all Commonwealth countries have recognised Palestine.
It would be truly unconscionable in this context if the UK, as a key player in the original injustice, did not joint the vast majority of the world in recognising Palestine.
Grudging then? Typical
It is physically sick-making that ‘we’ are recognising a Palestinian State now that it is essentially a pile of blood-stained rubble.
As Richard says – it is weird kind of ‘recognition’ if we reserve the right to decide their ‘government’.
As Edward Said said at the outset the ‘two state solution’ was designed to fail , but we didn’t even pretend to believe in it when Israel began building 300000 settler homes on the occupied territories.
We have sat on our hands and just watched the slow death of any version of a two state solution. Indeed we have only begun to mention the phrase since the Oct3rd 2023 attack , following 20 years of silence.
Israel is on the brink of completing its final solution – making the putative Palestinian state a desert – starving the population into exile.
The trouble with Labour Party members and MP’s is their inability to recognise that many members of the public now think Starmer constantly uses “weasel words” to disguise the fact he’s doing the wrong thing. It’s now become an identifiably “camouflaged” party! This lack of recognition will cost them dearly at election times!
A more succinct way of saying this is “There’s no beginning to his credibility!”
“I’m a 100% Zionist, unqualified” – possibly the only really honest thing Starmer has said in his ascent of the greasy pole of power. Never forget that.
Which is why he announced further sanctions against Hamas but none against Israel, which is behaving as a terrorist rogue state.
He was brought kicking and screaming to this point, after a discussion which centred around the question “What’s the LEAST we can get away with and not upset the Emperor in the White House too much?”.
Of course it is insincere, of course we will fail to follow it with action, of course the Palestinians will continue to be ignored.
But even allowing for all that, it IS significant, and it was good to see Starmer being forced to yield even this amount of ground.
Did anyone else notice how far away he was from the 2 very out-of-focus Union flags? Are flags out of fashion now?
All eyes now on the symbolic aid flotilla – will Israel attack and kill the crew members? They’ve already destroyed most of Gaza port.
The response of the Palestinian people in response to Starmer’s announcement is that it must be accompanied by practical measures. The United States wanting to further arm Israel can hardly be called a practical measure for furthering a Palestinian State and Starmer should call this out.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/sep/21/west-bank-ramallah-palestine-recognition-state-uk-france-portugal-canada
https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/white-house-seeking-congress-approval-sell-israel-6-bln-weapons-wsj-reports-2025-09-19/
So, Starmer recognises the Palestinian state but doesn’t say whether he means its 1967 borders. He mentions the hostages being held by Hamas but doesn’t mention the far greater number of Palestinians being held by Israel. How can anyone take him seriously?
Very hard to do so.
Israel is just waiting for winter to finish off the Palestinians who will be 100% without shelter/food/medical attention by then if they are not already dead. The west needs to put sanctions behind their recognition otherwise its kind of a performative move.
https://youtu.be/dnHFMtfVNLg?si=N2usOoXCFIzHBJCg
Netanyahu has contacted Farage and Bedenoch over Labours, albeit too little too late, recognition of Palestine as a state. This is what successive UK governments have been dealing with in regards to Israel. I believe McSweeney and Starmer colluded with Israel to oust Corbyn, and now I believe they will collude against Starmer now they have finally made his position untenable. I am also fully aware that recognition of Palestine is a cynical grab for left wing support. All parties are pathetic. Expect to hear a torrent of bullshit from Farage and Badenoch very soon.
So Starmer (grudgingly) recognises the State of Palestine. But he still refuses to recognise genocide, in the face of verdicts from the UN, Amnesty, B’Tselem and many others.
When he first announced he was about to make this recognition it was conditional on Israel NOT stopping the genocide. Of course he didn’t mention the G word, he talked about a cease fire and lasting peace, as if he was referring to a war. So the recognition of the state (77 years too late) is a tacit admission that the genocide is continuing.
Since few states in the West are prepared to stand up to Trump and Netanyahu, there will be no action to prevent the extermination or relocation of the Palestinians, including from the West Bank. So there will not be any land which has not been annexed by Israel. Palestine, the landless state! That is Israel’s openly stated ambition.
There is a possibility that the UN will decide that an international peacekeeping force will have to be deployed:
https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2025/4/28/a-protective-force-must-be-deployed-to-occupied-palestine
I really hope that something like this can be agreed upon by non-complicit states., but America will veto it and UK abstain, so the odds are very much against.
Starmer’s announcement last month that he will recognise the State of Palestine UNLESS Israel stops the genocide, gives the context of the recognition now.
Of course Starmer didn’t mention the G word then, as he still does not accept that is what is happening, in the face of verdicts from the UN, Amnesty, B’Tselem and many more. He used terms like ceasefire and lasting peace, as if he was talking about a war.
So he has recognised the State of Palestine in the knowledge that the carnage is continuing and will carry on until Israel has killed or relocated all the Palestinians, including in the West bank. So it will be a state with no land – Israel will have annexed it all. Who will stop this happening; the UN?
https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2025/4/28/a-protective-force-must-be-deployed-to-occupied-palestine
Apologies Richard for making two comments here (and now a third in explanation) but my first post seemed to be rejected as soon as I submitted it, on the grounds of duplication. Is there some sort of AI filter? The post then disappeared, rather than being added to the bottom of the comments with the note about moderation. So, a bit puzzled (and slightly peeved) I made the same comment in less words. Rather embarrassed to find both comments here when I looked this morning. I would delete the later one if I could. I realise that moderation is quite a chore, so apologies again.
Thanks for explaining.
And apologies for the WordPress bugs