What a sick joke.
Sir Keir Starmer, the prime minister of the United Kingdom, has just announced that the UK will recognize a Palestinian State in September, if Israel doesn’t “do something” about Gaza. Do something? We are burying our dead. We are still trying to retrieve our hostages. We are in a war that we did not start. What would Sir Keir like us to do? Apologize for surviving?
This is not diplomacy – this is appeasement dressed up in the empty platitudes of international grandstanding. Where, exactly, is this “State of Palestine” he speaks of? Bradford? Luton? Should we ask the mayor of Tower Hamlets to draw the borders? Who will run it – Hamas, whose charter calls for the annihilation of the Jewish state? Or perhaps the ever-reliable United Nations, that gleaming monument to moral bankruptcy, whose members include Iran and North Korea on human rights councils?
A Palestinian state today means one thing and one thing only: a reward for October 7.
Let’s not sugar-coat it. The butchery, the rapes, the burning of families alive, the taking of children, elderly Holocaust survivors, babies – all of it is being cynically ignored. Starmer’s move is not just a policy blunder; it is a slap in the face to every Israeli family still living in trauma and waiting for a loved one to come home. It is a message to Hamas that barbarism pays dividends. Kidnap Jews, butcher civilians, use your own people as human shields, and the West will give you a seat at the UN and a state flag to fly.
State? Borders? Security?
Where is this Palestinian state, Sir Keir? Define it. Draw it on a map. Who will police it? The “moderate” Palestinian Authority that pays stipends to terrorists and names schools after suicide bombers? Will the Royal Navy patrol Rafah? Will the UN send peacekeepers into Khan Yunis? Spoiler alert: no. They’ll all be too busy drafting another condemnation of Israel for defending itself.
Who will be its president – Jeremy Corbyn?
What about Hamas? Will they be disarmed as part of this fantasy? Or will we, the Jewish state, be expected to tolerate a terrorist army armed to the teeth next door, in what the UK and France will now call a “sovereign neighbor”?
Let’s talk about sovereignty. Sovereignty without responsibility is chaos. Sovereignty given to terrorists is state-sponsored suicide.
The West’s moral inversion
Meanwhile, where is the outrage about Syria? Druze villages are being bombed into dust. Not a word from Greta Thunberg or the BBC. Where is the UN resolution on that? Where are the demonstrations on London streets? When will Britain recognize a Druze state?
And what about Yemen? Hundreds of thousands are starving. The Houthis, backed by Iran, are launching missiles at Israeli cities, including Tel Aviv. Where are the ICJ warrants for those war crimes? Oh, right, those are only reserved for Israelis trying to rescue hostages or dismantle terror tunnels under hospitals.
It’s not just a double standard. It’s moral rot.
The follower, not the leader
Keir Starmer has shown himself to be no leader. He is merely following the French, who have long excelled at abandoning Jews in times of crisis. This is the same France that rolled over for the Nazis and now rolls out the red carpet for the enemies of Israel. Now Britain, once the lion of the free world, has become a bleating sheep, shuffling behind a policy of cowardice and delusion.
Let me be clear: this isn’t about helping Palestinians. This is about political expedience, virtue signaling, and pandering to a growing, radicalized electorate. Starmer thinks this will bring peace; what it will bring is more war, more hostages, and more death.
The only people smiling today are in the Hamas bunkers. Because they’ve been handed a win by the leader of one of the world’s supposedly great democracies.
The real road to peace
President Trump, for all his flaws, called it correctly: the only barrier to peace is Hamas. The war in Gaza could have ended 21 months ago, if Hamas had released the hostages. It could end tomorrow, if they release them now. But they won’t. Because they’ve realized what we all feared: that Jewish lives are bargaining chips, and the West is all too happy to play along.
Every day our hostages remain in Gaza is a day of torment for their families. And every time a Western leader like Starmer rewards that torment with political capital, he becomes complicit.
The UK is losing its soul
As a dual citizen of both the UK and Israel, it pains me to say this, but Britain has lost its way. Once a proud, principled nation that stood up to tyranny, it now grovels before it. I still work in the UK. I used to proudly carry a British passport. But today, I feel no pride in that once fine blue document. My message (for what it’s worth) to 10 Downing Street is simple: You have forgotten who you are.
Nigel Farage, love him or loathe him, said it best on national television: “This decision rewards atrocities.” He also warned that Jews in the UK will feel deeply uneasy tonight, and he’s right – they should. This announcement is not just foreign policy; it is a green light to the antisemites already emboldened by protests and university sit-ins and violent rhetoric on British streets.
I told you so
On October 24, 2023, less than three weeks after the atrocities of October 7, I wrote in this very newspaper that it was time for British Jews to think long and hard about their future in the UK. I take no pleasure in saying this, but: I told you so. But here we are.
Recognizing a Palestinian state today is not a step toward peace. It is a vote of confidence in terror. It tells Hamas: your tactics work. It tells Israelis: your suffering doesn’t matter. And it tells Jews in Britain: you are on your own.
Keir Starmer may be prime minister, but today, he is no statesman. He is a coward in a suit, and history will judge him as such.
Until then, we Israelis will do what we must do to survive – whether the UK likes it or not.
The writer, a rabbi and physician, lives in Ramat Poleg, Netanya. He is a co-founder of Techelet – Inspiring Judaism.