There has been a 180° U-turn in Britain's attitude towards Israel, from Sunak's high-profile claim that Britain will stand with Israel forever to Cameron's direct criticism of Israel's failures over the past 30 years. Why did the British make such a huge shift in just a few months?
The United Kingdom, like the United States, has a long and deep cooperation with the Jewish consortium and Israel, and in many areas their interests are highly bound, and they are also their closest allies. Therefore, after Hamas launched the "Al-Aqsa flood operation" on October 7 last year, the United Kingdom, like the United States, strongly supported Israel.
However, Britain did not expect that the Palestinian-Israeli conflict would develop into such an uncontrollable state. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has a long history, and we often say that the two sides have been fighting for 76 years since 1948. In fact, before that, the two sides were also fighting, and there were also deep contradictions, but they did not exist in the situation of the country.
In the past decade or so, the Palestinian-Israeli conflict has also continued, but it is small in scale and short in duration, and generally ends in a week to a dozen days. Due to habitual thinking, when a new round of Palestinian-Israeli conflict broke out again, we did not expect it to develop into a long-term large-scale war.
The same is true of the British, who, according to their alliance with Israel, are attacked, and the British are naturally to help, and to show great sincerity in their attitude. Therefore, how Sunak preached Britain's support for Israel at that time was not exaggerated, it was within the normal range.
But as the situation unfolded, the British slowly realized that something was wrong, and their ally Israel did not seem to be telling the truth to them and did not want to deal with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as they wished. Netanyahu wants to continue this war and drag Britain and the United States into the quagmire of war.
The British must have re-examined the whole course of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and they should now understand Netanyahu's sinister intentions. There is a huge common interest between Britain and Israel, so they should have a common goal. But Netanyahu is a special case, and his current interests are seriously at odds with Israel's objective national interests.
Netanyahu is known to be facing a crisis of corruption lawsuits in Israel, and if this conflict does not break out, then he is likely to face a long and difficult lawsuit, and his political career will be over. Even the Netanyahu family could be seriously implicated, so Netanyahu chose to take the risk.
The Palestinian-Israeli conflict is like a fuse, which is gradually detonating the powder keg buried in various parts of the Middle East. Conflicts in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Yemen, the Red Sea, and Iran continue to erupt, mainly between the Islamic world and the Western bloc. If the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is not stopped soon, a new war in the Middle East seems to be only a matter of time.
For the Anglo-American Western bloc, they cannot afford a war in the Middle East at the moment, they have enough troubles to face. So they must try to bring the Palestinian-Israeli conflict to a halt and stabilize the situation in the Middle East.
For Europe, the United States and the Western bloc, the biggest crisis they are facing at present is Russia, and more than 30 NATO countries are currently gathering 90,000 troops to conduct large-scale military exercises in Eastern Europe for four months. In fact, this is to prevent Russia from defeating Ukraine in the next 4 months and then moving westward. In contrast, there is nothing more dangerous than the immediate threat of war. Therefore, NATO and the EU need to concentrate most of their resources on the Eastern European region and keep an eye on Russia.
The Middle East is also very important to Europe, after Russia's energy ** was cut off, the Middle East became a substitute for European energy, and the Red Sea route is very important for Europe's import and export. If a war breaks out in the Middle East, at least Europe's energy and foreign trade will be greatly affected, and they will have to separate themselves to solve the Middle East problem. The Middle East issue is very thorny, and the end of the main force of the US military may not be resolved quickly.
British politicians know very well that now the Islamic world in the Middle East does not want to go to war either, but if Israel has been in Gaza **Palestinians, they will have to fight. Therefore, calming down the Palestinian-Israeli conflict as soon as possible can cool down the Middle East and avoid the outbreak of a major war.
The biggest obstacle to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict at present is the wartime led by Netanyahu**, as long as Israel agrees to a ceasefire, the problem will be solved, and the United Kingdom and the United States, including the United Nations Security Council, hope to take this opportunity to completely solve the Palestinian-Israeli issue. This is also the biggest hidden danger in the Middle East, and the fundamental solution to this problem is the "two-state solution".
This time, Cameron not only publicly criticized Israel and called for a two-state solution, but even said that Britain was considering recognizing the legitimacy of a Palestinian state ahead of schedule. This is undoubtedly a serious warning to Israel, and even the United States has a meaning in it.
However, it will not be easy for the two-state solution to be realized, and neither Israel nor Hamas currently supports this solution, and the hatred in their hearts is too deep.