As Labour and Conservative politicians criticise Israel's government, Netanyahu must change course

As the UK Government revealed sanctions against four Israeli organisations and three settlements in Palestinian territory over “heinous abuses of human rights”, David Cameron revealed he had been drawing up sanctions against two “extremists” in Benjamin Netanyahu’s Cabinet shortly before July’s general election.

The former Conservative Foreign Secretary said targeting Israeli finance minister Bezalel Smotrich and national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir in this way would have put pressure on the Israeli government to act in accordance with international law. Smotrich was recently criticised for appearing to suggest it might be "just and moral" to withhold food aid from Gaza, while Ben-Gvir has backed the expansion of illegal West Bank settlements.

Violent settlers targeting schools

Cameron’s successor, Labour’s David Lammy, said yesterday that he had met Palestinians “whose communities have suffered horrific violence at the hands of Israeli settlers” during a trip to the West Bank this year. "The inaction of the Israeli government has allowed an environment of impunity to flourish where settler violence has been allowed to increase unchecked. Settlers have shockingly even targeted schools and families with young children,” he added.

According to the United Nations, there have been more than 1,400 attacks by illegal settlers since October 2023, when the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas launched its murderous attack on Israel.

France’s President Emmanuel Macron recently repeated his call for an international ban on arms exports to Israel for use in Gaza and Lebanon as a way to encourage a ceasefire, while in the US, the Democrats have been coming under political pressure to take a tougher stance over Israel’s use of force.

Israel has the right to defend itself in order to prevent another October 7 attack, which Hamas threatened to repeat, and Hezbollah rocket attacks. It is also difficult to defeat an enemy that hides within the general population without causing civilian casualties. However, too many innocent people have been killed.

Netanyahu and the less extreme members of his Cabinet need to realise that public opinion worldwide is increasingly turning against them. Their current tactics may be producing military gains on the ground, but the resulting loss of hearts and minds contains the seeds of a long-term, strategic defeat.