Burnham Warned He Could Hurt Britain’s ‘Special Relationship’ With America if London Moves Against Israel

As Prime Minister Andy Burnham threatens sanctions against Israel, his Labour allies warn that such a move would damage Britain’s special relations with America as well as incite Israeli countermeasures. The new British premier, under pressure from Labour backbenchers and his foreign secretary Ed Miliband, is weighing a trade ban on Israeli products and services with links to Judea and Samaria. Some Labourites, though, are telling their party leader that President Trump could retaliate against such a move by launching a trade war with Britain. London’s expected moves against Israel threaten to overshadow Mr. Burnham’s upcoming first meeting as premier with the American president. It is widely expected to take place during the late September gathering of world leaders at New York for the annual session of the United Nations General Assembly. Britain is a signatory, with several European countries and Canada, to a joint condemnation of Israel’s recent announcement of housing tenders in a Jerusalem-adjacent area known as E1. The Israeli decision is “unacceptable and destructive,” Mr. Miliband said in a statement, adding, “Britain will not stand back and accept the destruction of the two-state solution.”Hold on, say Mr. Burnham’s close allies. “Our trade and diplomatic relationship with the U.S. is fragile enough as it is,” an unidentified Labour parliamentarian told the London Times. “We shouldn’t be naïve enough to believe we could sanction Israel and not face any economic and political consequences from the White House, Congress, or states.”Mr. Burnham’s premiership is merely one month old. Assuming the party’s leadership, the premier vowed to repair what he called his party’s “damaged” relations with Britain’s Jewish Community. “The first foreign visit I would do as leader of the Labour Party would be to Israel to show that message from the start,” he told Jewish leaders in June. So far, Mr. Burnham’s only foreign trip as prime minister was to Kyiv, Ukraine. His relations with Jerusalem, meanwhile, are deteriorating. In a recent call between London and Jerusalem’s foreign ministers, Israel’s Gideon Saar reportedly “made very clear to the foreign secretary that Israel cannot allow punitive measures to be taken against it without responding.” Outrage by Israel’s detractors over the tenders for 1,200 housing units at E1 is the latest in the trend. Europeans increasingly join Arabs and Muslims in a reflexive response to anything that, in their view, would damage the ever-elusive two-state solution. The unbuilt E1 area lies between Jerusalem and the large Jewish city of Ma’ale Adumim, the latter considered by many countries as part of an “occupied territory” of the West Bank. Under President Clinton, though, several maps were presented to Israeli and Palestinian negotiators. Ma’ale Adumim and what is now known as E1 were envisioned in those futuristic two-state plans to remain on the Israeli side. Those negotiations fell apart but the two-state idea is maintained as a staple of global diplomacy even as it loses luster among Palestinians and Israelis. France, Belgium, Ireland, the Netherlands, and Spain are currently threatening, or already enacting, sanctions of goods and services from Judea and Samaria over various settlements-related allegations, including the E1 tenders.In response to questions, the Department of State’s spokesman said in a statement that America opposes Israeli annexation of the West Bank, but pointedly declined to mention E1. The American embassy in Ireland alluded to possible retaliation against local companies after Dublin legislated sanctions against Israeli settlements. Mr. Trump threatened a full embargo against Spain after it imposed anti-Israel sanctions. Jerusalem vows to retaliate against any country that imposes sanctions on Israel or Judea and Samaria’s communities. Israeli banks, for one, operate in those communities and could fall under such sanctions, hitting any Israeli in the pocket, including those who oppose the settlers’ movement.Israel already announced that officials from countries that boycott the Jewish state would be expelled from an international center at Kiryat Gat overseeing the Gaza peace plan. Jerusalem announced that British officials would not only be expelled from the center, but also it would weigh “other measures” against Britain.

Burnham Warned He Could Hurt Britain’s ‘Special Relationship’ With America if London Moves Against Israel

Burnham Warned He Could Hurt Britain’s ‘Special Relationship’ With America if London Moves Against Israel

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