The gesture by Canada, Australia and the UK is aimed largely at two camps, but in reality isn’t going to make any real impact.
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Ahead of a UNGA council in New York, Britain, Canada and Australia seemed to form a united front against Donald Trump when they ploughed ahead with their formal acceptance of Palestine having its own state.
In the case of Britain, many would argue that it was about time and should have been decades ago as the Balfour Declaration which laid the foundations of Israel as a state didn’t show much reverence towards the ‘locals’. Even in recent years it should and could have been acknowledged by Britain when, in 2014, France’s PM made an informal statement towards accepting Palestine’s own sovereignty.
Much media attention was given the Sir Keir Starmer’s speech, televised but his address merely threw up more questions than answers and underlined a point that many sceptics will point out in days to come: the move is largely symbolic and has very little if any significance in the bigger picture.
Of course it was a step in the right direction but given that Starmer’s support in polls in the UK is close to single figures and that he is battling week by week for his own political existence, for Britain to make this statement just two days after Trump left the UK shows that it lacks any real substance and was all about political posturing, on many levels to many players.
Western leaders are now pulling off a huge bluff in trying to present themselves to their own electorates that they don’t agree with the genocide which the Israelis are carrying out, despite supporting it in real terms for two years and giving Netanyahu and his government absolute impunity from international law.
Yet it is international law which will be the basis of any statehood that Palestine might seek although little mention of this has been presented in recent days. None of these western countries who have made these statements have anything to back up their speeches with as none even have a blueprint they can offer the Palestinians – a roadmap to creating a state. Given this oversight it is hard to take these moves seriously when, in particular, Starmer mentions there will be no place for Hamas in such a new, shiny state, but can’t explain how that would possibly work.
The gesture by Canada, Australia and the UK is aimed largely at two camps, but in reality isn’t going to make any real impact. These three leaders want to send a message to Netanyahu that he needs to listen to them and move towards a ceasefire while stopping the senseless slaughter of women and children in tents. But it’s also directed at Trump. As it is the Donald who has the real power at the UN Security Council level as the U.S. will always veto any proposals for a separate new state for Palestine. He, as well as Netanyahu this week, both made it clear that any such state cannot be allowed. These countries are hoping that Trump’s vanity will get the better of him and he will give in to pressure, but what they fail to understand is that even if the U.S. were to back it at the UN level, the implementation of such a plan would need to be with the full support and agreement of Israel anyway.
The critical point about these statements of support is not only that these countries lack any faith in the idea as none can even be bothered to draw up any draft plans, but more that even together they are weak when faced with the power of the U.S. and Israel. None of these leaders are prepared to back up their “demands” for a Palestinian state by going further and threatening Netanyahu with sanctions and an arms embargo which is where the buck stops. Because of this, the gesture is empty and meaningless which is perhaps why the Palestinian foreign minister described the statements as “brave” as she knows that it merely placed more tension on countries like Britain or Canada with Trump who might have to make more threats to them as a consequence.
Yet in reality neither Trump nor Netanyahu are going to be phased by the support for a Palestinian state and have no problem at all being isolated at the UN. The real danger is in fact that the ganging up on Trump may well push Netanyahu to accelerate the killing in Gaza and impose an annexation on the West Bank, while encouraging settlers to step up their land grabs. The UNGA meeting will also throw the spotlight on another issue though which is the impotence of the UN Security Council itself, made up of UK, France, China, Russia, and the USA. Quite apart from the fact that his motley crew cannot resolve conflicts in central Africa, find a peace deal for Ukraine and certainly not even reduce the most horrific genocide seen in modern times, the UN itself, which it accommodates, is financially destitute and having to dramatically wind down a number of massive operations like its Word Food Program while laying off thousands of workers. The UK is broke and even more ineffective than it has ever been due largely to the Trump pulling a lot of its funding. The ace up Trump’s sleeve if these countries go further will be to pull the U.S. out of the UN altogether for a period of time to show the world who really runs it in the first place. Political posturing comes with a very high price.
