A report issued by the House of Lords International Relations Committee is concerned that “the mercurial and unpredictable nature of policy-making by President Trump has made it challenging for the UK government to influence US foreign policy so far, a challenge that is not likely to ease.”
In response, the report recommends that the UK government should distance itself from US President Donald Trump in the Middle East, support the Iran nuclear deal while Trump is trying to undo it, and recognize a Palestinian on the way to establishing the two-state solution.
The committee, led by Conservative former Foreign Office minister Lord Howell of Guildford, said the Trump administration has “the potential to destabilize further the region.”
Lord Howell said in a statement that “the Middle East has changed and UK policy in the region must respond to that,” suggesting that “we need a new UK Middle East strategy and set of policies that reflect the new reality in the region.”
And so, the honorable Lord’s new ideas regarding Israel and the Arabs of the Judea, Samaria and Gaza, whose leaders, Hamas and the PA, have been fighting each other for dominion since 2007, must be given their own state. That’s thinking outside the box for you.
The committee report is particularly concerned about potential harm resulting from Trump’s aggressive response to the regime’s use of chemical weapons. Pointing out that “despite the chemical attack and the recent escalation of military conflict – Assad, with Russian support, remains in power,” the report recommends less action, more talk.
“There are no good options available in Syria but the recent chemical attack, the urgency of the humanitarian crisis, with the potential to destabilize the EU and countries of the Middle East with refugees, requires the UK, and international community, to redouble its efforts to achieve a negotiated solution,” the report says.
As to the Jews and the Arabs, in early April, Lord Warner called on the UK government to apologize for the “suffering” of Palestinians, 100 years after the Balfour Declaration. The UK had failed to protect the rights of non-Jewish people in the region and should therefore apologize, Baron Warner demanded.
He told the House: “Furthermore, should we not mark the centenary with a gracious apology from the British government in Parliament for the suffering that that failure has caused and try to make amends – with a clear commitment to recognition of a viable independent Palestinian state?”
Well, that’s thinking outside a different kind of box altogether.
