Miliband faces Labour backbench pressure over Israel
Friday, 9 January 2009 12:00 AM
By Alex Stevenson
A growing number of Labour MPs are calling on foreign secretary David Miliband to step up its diplomatic efforts towards Israel, an MP has claimed.
Martin Linton, chairman of the Labour Friends of Palestine group, told politics.co.uk the current conflict in the Gaza Strip in which over 700 Palestinian civilians have died was polarising politicians from the government benches.
"We are seeing a sea change in opinion, certainly among Labour MPs," he said at a meeting hosted by the Royal Society of Arts.
"We're finding more and more Labour MPs who've never had any interest in the Palestinian issue before keen to sign letters to the foreign secretary to attend meetings to protest about what is going on."
Mr Linton said the government had done well by coming out "pretty quickly" for a ceasefire but added: "We see our job as pushing them further."
"We need to catch up with what's happening around us. Our moral compass with regards to the Israeli conflict is somewhat askew," he commented.
Gordon Brown was described as "much clearer" than his predecessor, Tony Blair, who is now the Quartet's special envoy.
Mr Linton, who served as a junior member of the government under Mr Blair, said the former prime minister "hasn't quite understood that there has been a change in people's attitudes in this country".
He said Mr Blair would be listened to by the Israelis and that this was a precondition of any envoy's success.
But he warned that "what passes for even-handedness is actually very much in sympathy with the Israelis" and warned "it is important to have somebody who's got credibility with both sides".
Mr Linton's criticism of Mr Blair was echoed by Abdel Bari Atwan, editor of the popular pan-Arabic newspaper Al-Quds Al-Arabi.
"The first thing we have to do is sack Tony Blair as the envoy," he said at the same meeting.
"He is creating more terrorism and he is collaborating with these atrocities when he said 'we have to stop the tunnels'. What kind of tunnels? The tunnels were used to smuggle food for the Palestinian people, not arms. Not tanks, not nuclear bombs."
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