Sanctions could easily spiral out of control and become far more damaging than the British Government intends
Daily Telegraph 08/09/26
It is all an act, apparently. That was the message that British diplomats reportedly gave to their American counterparts in advance of sanctions on the Jewish state.
The moves are “largely symbolic and will have no material impact on the UK’s wider relationship with Israel on trade and security”, they murmured, according to reporting by Bloomberg. “Britain’s relationship with Israel will continue largely as it is.”
So what was the point? Well, the upcoming by-election in Keir Starmer’s old seat of Holborn and St Pancras might have something to do with it. The Labour Government might be sitting on a working majority of 166, but if such a symbolic seat fell to the Greens, it would threaten to demoralise the troops and herald a domino effect.
The problem is that this is a strategy of high risk. It’s all very well saying that we don’t mean what we say, but is the US really to take us at our word? Our economy would hardly be grateful for more swingeing Donald Trump tariffs at the moment.
Itamar Ben-Gvir, one of the far-Right firebrands propping up the Benjamin Netanyahu government, has made wild suggestions that Israel should retaliate by recognising Argentina’s claim on the Falklands, echoing grumblings from Trump.
Well, you know what? I’d welcome that, because as idiotic as such a move would be, it would make zero difference.
There are many other levers Jerusalem could pull that would cause real pain. Our bilateral trade stood at £5.9bn last year, and Britain enjoys a healthy surplus, bringing in profit and jobs.
Mossad has saved countless British lives with tip-offs to MI5, and our new Challenger 3 tanks will be brimming with Israeli defence tech. One in seven boxes of medicine issued in Britain is produced by Israeli pharmaceutical firms.
These were the “tools” that Israel’s foreign minister, Gideon Sa’ar, said could be put into play in retaliation for British hostility. At the very least, we can expect our seat at the table in the Gaza peacebuilding project to be removed, a measure that has already been taken against the Dutch.
On the other side of the ledger, the sanctions could easily spiral out of control and become far more damaging than the Government might intend.
It’s all very well to block products produced by towns in Judea and Samaria – and according to Bloomberg, British officials have acknowledged that “traders can re-label goods to evade sanctions” – but what about transactions and financial services?
Israel has only one banking system; British banks would likely avoid all ties rather than spending hours disentangling one payment from another. This would be the beginning of a creep from targeted sanctions to full-blown economic assault, which is precisely what Labour’s backbenchers want to see.
The irony here is that if this is a piece of theatre designed for domestic electioneering, a similar dynamic is playing out in Israel.
British sanctions were triggered by Jerusalem’s plans to build on E1, a 4.6-mile section of land long seen – rather hyperbolically – as key to a future Palestinian state. Why did the Israeli far-Right push these plans through now? Because the election is looming and there are far-Right votes to be had, of course.
October 7 showed Israelis what can happen when you withdraw from Palestinian territory, as they did from Gaza in 2005, and hand over the keys. The Right is vowing not to let that happen again, and the outrage from Britain only wins more votes.
Similarly, the outrage from Israel and Donald Trump only wins Labour more support from those fringe Muslim and progressive voters flirting with the Greens. Again, it’s all about the performance.
And yet again, Britain’s tiny and patriotic population of Jews is treated with contempt. Last week, Andy Burnham and Angela Rayner met Jewish representatives to assure them that they took their security concerns seriously.
Really? What can we expect, more money for fences? Given how much more fiercely the fires of anti-Semitism will burn with the fuel of sanctions and invective from this Government, these pledges are just more performance.
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