Ruth Michaelson
The Guardian / July 15, 2024
David Lammy holds second day of meetings with Israeli officials but hopes of immediate ceasefire are dwindling.
Israeli air and naval strikes continued to pummel Gaza as the UK Foreign Secretary, David Lammy, reiterated his demand for a ceasefire during a visit to Jerusalem.
Strikes on central Gaza followed two days of particularly deadly attacks including one in a humanitarian zone in southern Gaza that killed at least 90 people when Israeli forces targeted the head of Hamas’s military wing, Mohammed Deif.
Hamas has maintained that Deif survived the attack despite public speculation among Israeli officials, but the attempt has further strained already fragile ceasefire negotiations that have dragged for months. “There is no doubt that the horrific massacres will impact any efforts in the negotiations,” the Hamas spokesperson Jihad Taha said on Sunday.
A source close to the negotiations said Qatari mediators remained determined to overcome this latest obstacle, despite the risk that the attempt on Deif’s life could stall talks. They pointed to notable examples where Hamas was reluctant to negotiate but did not disengage entirely, including after an Israeli strike in a Gaza refugee camp last October that killed 120 people, and the assassination of the founder of Hamas’s military wing, Saleh al-Arouri, in Beirut earlier this year.
“Talks still continued then, and they’re going to continue regardless of whether one side wants to take a step back and review,” they said. A second track of negotiations to avert a war between Israel and Lebanon, they added, appeared to be proving more productive for mediators including the White House.
Negotiators from Israel’s Mossad security agency have been engaged in indirect talks with Hamas, mediated by Qatar, Egypt and the head of the CIA, in an attempt to secure the release of dozens of Israeli and dual-national hostages held by Hamas and other Palestinian factions in Gaza since 7 October.
After an initial hostage release in November, efforts to secure a second round in exchange for at least a temporary pause in fighting have proved far more challenging. Israel’s hostages and missing families forum said signs of life had been received from 33 hostages in late May, according to Amnesty International, out of an estimated 116 believed held in Gaza.
Hamas and Israeli officials remain at odds, sometimes down to the exact wording of the truce agreement. The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has doubled down on his demand that Israeli forces must be permitted to continue fighting in Gaza, while Hamas has long demanded at least a temporary truce.
Gershon Baskin, a longtime Israeli negotiator involved in the hostage exchange deal that freed the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, posted on X about the need to “make a deal now”. Israeli negotiators, he said, should secure a deal and show it to the public “so that everyone will know that the prime minister is the one who is blocking the deal”.
“The attempted elimination of Deif, or the elimination of Deif, will not advance the release of the hostages,” he said. “The military pressure of more than nine months only resulted in the killing of hostages and many Palestinian non-combatants.”
Lammy reiterated his call for a ceasefire during his second day of meetings with Israeli officials, including a meeting with the Israeli president, Isaac Herzog, as the new British foreign secretary continues a diplomatic push despite dwindling hopes of an immediate ceasefire.
Lammy met the family of British hostages and later joined Herzog to meet relatives of Tamir Adar, whose body is believed to be being held by Hamas militants in Gaza. “I hope that we see a hostage deal emerge in the coming days, and I am using all diplomatic efforts,” said Lammy. “I hope, too, that we see a ceasefire soon, and we bring an alleviation to the suffering and the intolerable loss of life that we’re now seeing also in Gaza.”
Far-right members of Netanyahu’s cabinet continue to demand the Israeli government refrain from making a deal to end the fighting in Gaza. The finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, said Monday that he opposed the release of any Palestinian prisoner as part of a ceasefire agreement, saying: “I will not agree to it, a red line must be drawn.”
He added: “I will oppose this even if it ends my political career.”
Ruth Michaelson is a journalist based in Istanbul
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What David Lammy’s Middle East visit says about Labour’s foreign policy plans
Archie Bland
The Guardian / July 16, 2024
The new Foreign Secretary has met with officials from Israel, Palestine and relief agencies – but what do his actions and words mean for the conflict?
A few months before the election, David Lammy outlined his vision for Britain’s role on the international stage under a Labour government: “progressive realism”, or “the pursuit of ideals without delusions about what is achievable”. Just over a week into his tenure as foreign secretary, we have our first concrete indications of how he intends to operate those principles in practice.
On a visit to Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories over the last couple of days, his first international trip as foreign secretary, Lammy says he is sending a clear message: “We need an immediate ceasefire, the immediate release of all hostages, the protection of civilians, unfettered access to aid in Gaza and a pathway towards a two-state solution”.
But the image of the new foreign secretary shaking Benjamin Netanyahu’s hand in the aftermath of two attacks on the Gaza Strip that killed at least 120 people – many of them civilians taking refuge in a camp for displaced people – has caused considerable anger. The question that follows: is Lammy taking a risk with the left in order to better promote a peaceful resolution? Or is his supposed break with the Conservatives’ foreign policy more a matter of rhetoric than action?
Today’s newsletter, with Olivia O’Sullivan, director of the UK in the World Program at Chatham House, explains what we already know about Lammy’s approach to the conflict in Gaza, and what is still to be revealed.
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In depth: ‘It’s important to focus on whether there is a shift in action, not just rhetoric’
David Lammy’s meeting with Benjamin Netanyahu was only one component of his trip to Israel – but in the context of the immense pressure that has been put on Labour from the left over its policy on Gaza, it is likely to be an indelible one. It’s also true that Lammy has sought to signal a break with the Conservatives by emphasising the need for an “immediate ceasefire”, language that is meant to sound stronger than his predecessor David Cameron’s promise of “diplomatic leadership to reach a sustainable ceasefire”.
If that sounds like a distinction without a difference to the casual listener, it will have to be accompanied by more substantive measures to be credible. “In many ways, Labour’s language in opposition was quite similar to the then government’s,” Olivia O’Sullivan said. “It’s important to focus on whether there is a shift in action, not just in emphasis or rhetoric.”
What message is Lammy seeking to send with this visit ?
As well as Netanyahu, Lammy has met with Israeli president Isaac Herzog, and Palestinian Authority prime minister Mohammad Mustafa. He also saw family members of hostages being held in Gaza who have ties to the UK and Palestinians living in the West Bank who have been affected by Israeli settler violence. He said that “the loss of life over the last few months … is horrendous” and “has to stop”. And he said he would press Israeli leaders over conducting the war according to international humanitarian law, and on access for British aid trucks to Gaza.
“I’m sure they think about how the image with Netanyahu looks to people,” O’Sullivan said. “But Lammy and others around Labour have emphasized that their approach is dealing with the interlocutor you have, not the one you wish to have.”
How does that fit into Labour’s broader foreign policy ?
Lammy has said he views his “progressive realism” doctrine as an approach for a “newly dangerous and divided era” that stands in contrast to “the reckless and gaffe-prone diplomacy of Boris Johnson, Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak”. In this Guardian piece, he adds that it means “recognizing that the UK’s success depends on hard-headed realism about our own nation and the continent’s security, not a nostalgic misremembering of what we used to be.” (For a skeptical take on this approach, see this essay by international relations theorist Seán Molloy.)
“Lammy has signaled that his foreign policy will involve engaging with countries with whom we don’t agree on everything to achieve results,” O’Sullivan said. (Indeed, he also wrote: “We must shake the hands of those we need for peace.”)
“Labour often splits, in broad terms, between people who do not want to engage diplomatically or otherwise with countries with whom we do not share values, and people who don’t see that as a way to have influence in the world. The Middle East is really the first test of Lammy’s approach and whether it will be accepted.”
Has pressure from pro-Gaza voters made any difference ?
One part of the backdrop to Lammy’s visit, and Labour’s policy on Gaza more generally, is the election of five independent candidates backed by The Muslim Vote (TMV), a campaign group opposed to Labour’s approach over Gaza. TMV-backed candidates secured a strong showing or second place finishes in other constituencies as well. Labour’s vote fell by an average of 11% in seats where more than 10% of the population are Muslim. (For more on the appeal of these independent candidates, see this excellent Prospect analysis by Imaan Irfan.)
“Of course they are concerned about that,” O’Sullivan said. “And this is a longer-term concern with a broad base of their support. But they have a very secure majority, and they are obviously a very long way from the next election. So I’m loath to say that this one electoral cycle will direct policy.”
On the other hand, she added, “the UK tends to prioritize aligning with the US’s position on this and other issues – that is sometimes less of a priority for other European countries.” A “progressive realist” approach, she added, might mean “thinking about how this will affect our wider relations with states that are critical to any solution to the crisis – the US in particular.”
How might Labour’s policy differ from the Conservatives ?
So early in Lammy’s tenure, much of this remains hypothetical. O’Sullivan points to three key areas that could indicate a direction of travel: funding for the Palestinian relief works agency UNRWA, the question of whether UK arms sales to Israel will continue, and whether the Conservative government’s objection to prospective ICC warrants for the arrest of Netanyahu and other senior Israeli officials will be maintained.
“Lammy has indicated he will have something to say about UNRWA in the coming days,” O’Sullivan said. Barbara Woodward, the UK’s envoy to the UN, has said Lammy is “closely considering” whether to restore funding – a move that would be in line with most countries that withdrew it over Israeli allegations that it had been infiltrated by Hamas, allegations that have not been substantiated. Lammy urged the government to restore funding in April.
Last month, Lammy said the UK would comply with an ICC arrest warrant for Netanyahu. But yesterday the Israeli newspaper Maariv reported that Lammy had given assurances to Israel that the UK would maintain the last government’s objection to the ICC’s application for warrants, echoing Patrick Wintour’s report for the Guardian last week. The human rights barrister Geoffrey Robinson meanwhile warned that Washington is putting pressure on the UK to lodge the objection, which he called a “legal nonsense”, writing: “The US is not a member of the ICC, and expects the UK to look after its interests there.”
On arms exports, “Labour called for the publication of legal advice given to the government,” O’Sullivan said. “So will they do that themselves? It isn’t clear yet what they’re going to do there.” In May, Lammy said that if a Rafah offensive went ahead, the UK should suspend sales of weapons that could be used to prosecute it.
Will anything Lammy does influence Israel’s conduct in Gaza ?
“We should be cautious of overstating the role that the UK government is going to have,” O’Sullivan said. “But that doesn’t mean there isn’t influence. The UK has longstanding relationships with the Gulf states, and it can play a role in supporting shuttle diplomacy or convening discussions – supporting the progress of any proposal that involves the whole region. But it will only be part of the puzzle.”
Working to bring key regional actors together would be consistent with the last government’s approach, she added. “They could also appoint an envoy to the Middle East – someone who is the point person, and pushes for more consistent and focused engagement.”
Above all, the question is how hard Lammy will push Israel if he feels that the UK’s relationship with the US could be threatened. “We should not fail to recognize that the US will remain the UK’s most essential ally, whoever occupies the White House,” he wrote. “Pursuing ideals will be futile, without first guaranteeing our own security.” It is very early days – but exactly what that means in practice may soon start to become clear.
Archie Bland is the editor of the Guardian’s First Edition newsletter
