“Last Wednesday, at Prime Minister’s questions in the British Parliament, Jeremy Corbyn, a Labour MP and fierce critic of Israel, demanded that Britain vote the next day in favor of the UN upgrading Palestine’s status. David Cameron’s answer would have done an Israeli diplomat proud. ‘We need talks without any preconditions,’ said the prime minister. ‘We can wish for all we want in the United Nations, in the end you have got to have direct talks between the two parties to get the two-state solution we want.’

But despite Cameron’s support, the severe diplomatic response by Britain to the government decision to build 3,000 new homes in the West Bank should not have surprised anyone.

These are good days for British-Israel relations. While the local Jewish community may not be nearly as influential as that in America and much of the British media is extremely critical of Israel, ties between the two countries have rarely been better. The public aspects, trade, culture, science, are all strong and Britain was one of Israel’s main supporters during last month’s Operation Pillar of Defense against Gaza. Last year, Britain changed its universal jurisdiction law, greatly limiting (though not totally ending) the possibility of senior Israeli officials being prosecuted in London. Cameron’s government also put on hold former prime minister Gordon Brown’s attempts to adopt European standards of labeling goods produced in the settlements.”

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