While last Thursday’s vote in the UK was a nominal victory for the Conservatives, the relative success of the Labor party under the leadership of Jeremy Corbyn—a hater of Israel and lover of terrorists of all stripes who has allowed his party’s anti-Semitism problem to fester—does not, on its face, appear to be good news for Israel, its supporters, or Jews in general. But Walter Russell Mead sees some good news:
Anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism in various combinations have been a potent force in British politics among both Tories and Labor since World War II. The non-Thatcherite right and the Corbynite left don’t have much in common, but dislike for Israel and for America’s support for it are strong at both ends of the British political spectrum.
One of the few reservoirs of strong pro-Israel feeling in the UK lies in Northern Ireland. . . . Travelers in Northern Ireland will sometimes see Palestinian flags in Catholic neighborhoods and the Star of David banner in Protestant ones.
Last [week’s] election turned those Ulster Protestants into kingmakers; the ten seats of [their] Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) hold the balance in the British parliament, and [Prime Minister] Theresa May had no choice but to look to DUP as her best coalition partner and strongest ally. It’s unlikely that a British government that depends on Northern Ireland unionists will be eager to break new ground in the world of anti-Israel boycotts. Expect gnashing of teeth at the (mostly) anti-Zionist Foreign and Commonwealth Office. . . .
As post-Brexit Britain looks for partners, it could do worse than link up with a technologically advanced country that has made significant trade and diplomatic inroads in Africa and Asia—and that favors an open global trading economy.
Read more on American Interest: https://www.the-american-interest.com/2017/06/09/did-israel-just-win-the-british-election/