In Britain, the shockwaves of the war between Israel and Hamas are shaking domestic politics
In the British parliament, lawmakers jeered, booed and stormed out of the House of Commons to protest the speaker’s handling of a vote calling for a ceasefire in Gaza. Outside, a crowd of pro-Palestinian protesters projected the slogan “From the River to the Sea” onto the facade of Big Ben, drawing criticism from those who see it as a rallying cry for the eradication of Israel.
The chaotic scenes in London last week showed how Israel’s war in Gaza is reverberating far beyond the Middle East. From the United States to Europe, the brutal October 7 attack by Hamas militants and Israel’s devastating response have inflamed passions, upended politics and heightened tensions within the Muslim and Jewish communities.
The fighting is not just about intractable issues such as war, peace and moral justice. In Britain, political parties and the public are not actually that divided over how to respond to Gaza; a strong majority a ceasefire back. Instead, the humanitarian crisis in Gaza has also become a club for opponents to swing against each other.
The ruling Conservative Party seized on the anti-Israel comments of a Labor Party parliamentary candidate to accuse Labor of failing to eradicate a legacy of anti-Semitism in its ranks. Labor pointed to disparaging comments by a Tory MP about London’s Muslim mayor as evidence of simmering Islamophobia among Conservatives.
Both parties maneuvered furiously in Parliament over the ceasefire resolution, not because they differed much on the substance, but because the Conservatives saw an opportunity to stoke divisions within Labor over Britain’s initial support for Israel to bring to light.
“It’s an example of how a really serious issue has been distorted through the prism of party politics in Britain,” said Steven Fielding, emeritus professor of political history at the University of Nottingham.
In the United States, anger among some Democrats over President Biden’s robust support for Israel has been fueled a protest voice during Michigan’s primaries this week, raising questions about whether the war could change the outcome of a closely fought presidential election.
In France, President Emmanuel Macron was forced to do this throw away of his pro-Israel stance under pressure from France’s large Muslim population. In Germany, with its responsibility for the Holocaust, support for Israel has remained a fundamental principle, although Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock has recently begun to emphasize the importance of the ‘survival of the Palestinians’.
The conflict has also awakened ghosts in British politics: when Lee Anderson, the blunt Conservative lawmaker, said that “Islamists” were “in control” of Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, he was trading in the kind of anti-Muslim sentiment that twenty flared up years ago after London was hit by terrorist attacks by Islamic militants.
When Labor candidate Azhar Ali claimed that Israel had ‘allowed’ Hamas’ surprise attack, he evoked the anti-Semitism that infected the Labor Party under its previous leader, Jeremy Corbyn. The current leader, Keir Starmer, has purged Corbyn as part of a campaign to root out anti-Jewish prejudice. He also withdrew the party’s support for Mr Ali’s candidacy.
“Because of the Corbyn era, Israel has become part of a culture war in this country in a way that didn’t happen 20 years ago,” said Daniel Levy, head of the US/Middle East Project, a research group based in London. and New York.
Mr. Levy acknowledged that many lawmakers acted out of conviction on Gaza. But the anger of the past two weeks, he argued, was not so much about the rising death toll or how best to deal with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, but about the complicated history and politics surrounding Jewish and Muslim issues in Britain envelop.
For the Labor Party, the next tricky moment in this drama could come on Thursday, when voters in Rochdale, north of Manchester, will elect a new MP to replace a Labor MP who died in January. Although the party has disowned Mr Ali, he remains on the ballot paper and could still win the seat.
But Mr Ali’s messy late suspension has opened the door for a rebel candidate, George Galloway, a former Labor lawmaker who is now running as leader of Britain’s left-wing fringe Labor Party. He appeals to Rochdale’s sizeable Muslim population with a militantly pro-Palestinian message, arguing that many Britons are “revolting” against Labour’s support for Israel.
“If George Galloway does well enough,” Mr Levy said, “it will encourage a whole range of Labor leaders to take up this issue.”
That could cause further headaches for Mr Starmer as he prepares for the general election against the Conservatives later this year. But with Labor leading the Tories by 20 percentage points or more in the polls, analysts said the conflict in Gaza was unlikely to tip the election outcome.
In recent weeks, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s government has also changed its position on the conflict enough to blur differences with the opposition. During a trip to the Falkland Islands last week, his foreign secretary, David Cameron, called for a ceasefire, saying the fighting must stop “right now.”
“David Cameron and Keir Starmer have the same position on Israel-Gaza, and both have the same position as two-thirds of the public,” said Sunder Katwala, director of British Future, a research institute focused on immigration, race and racism. and identity.
But if Mr Starmer were to win the general election, Israel could pose a lingering problem for him in government. In 2006, Britain’s last Labor Prime Minister, Tony Blair, strongly supported Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s invasion of Lebanon. The war was going badly and Mr Blair was affected by the collateral damage at home.
“Undoubtedly that was even a bigger political problem for Tony than the war in Iraq,” said Jonathan Powell, Blair’s chief of staff.
For the Tories, the conflict in Gaza presents a different set of challenges. Like the Republican Party in the United States, it has taken a strong position in favor of Israel, a position that has provoked little internal disagreement. But the Tories are now dealing with the fallout from anti-Muslim statements from right-wing figures such as Anderson and Suella Braverman, a former home secretary.
After the debate in Parliament on a ceasefire, which turned ugly amid a fight over the speaker’s handling of it, Lindsay Hoyle, Ms Braverman wrote in the Daily Telegraph that “the Islamists, the extremists and the anti-Semites is now in charge.” The police, she said, gave the protesters free rein. In such a feverish atmosphere, there are growing concerns about the threat of violence against MPs.
Mr Anderson has refused to apologize, saying Mr Khan had “given away our capital to his friends”. Islamists, he told the right-wing GB News channel, “are in control of Khan and they are in control of London.”
Mr. Khan the comments mentioned ‘racist, Islamophobic and anti-Muslim’, and Mr Sunak, under pressure from prominent Muslim conservatives, suspended Mr Anderson from the party. But now Sunak is facing criticism from the party’s right wing for punishing a figure popular with some voters in England’s ‘red wall’, which was crucial to the party’s victory in the 2019 general election.
Given the Tories’ dire position in the polls, some analysts said there was considerable posturing in the fury over Gaza, part of a wider battle for party leadership or visibility after an expected election defeat.
“There are a lot of Tory MPs who are going to lose their seats, so they are looking for media opportunities,” said Ben Ansell, professor of comparative democratic institutions at the University of Oxford.
But the appeal to anti-Muslim sentiment also reflects something else: a last-ditch attempt by the Conservatives to derail Labour’s momentum.
“If you look at what the Conservatives are using against Labor it is that you cannot trust them because they will be controlled by others,” Mr Katwala said. “Right now they’re switching from ‘woke leftists’ to ‘the Islamists.’”