Sir Keir Starmer’s photo-op at this week’s Gaza peace treaty summed up his superficial contribution to the plan. As US ambassador to Israel Mick Huckabee tweeted on social media site X, Labour was “delusional” to think the UK has played any part in the diplomacy that led to this historic moment. A dash to Egypt to shake a few hands certainly doesn’t qualify.
The truth is Starmer can’t even dissuade a mob of anti-Semitic students from marching in London on the anniversary of the October 7 terrorist outrage, let alone shape matters on the international stage. He is weak and ineffectual. In contrast, US President Donald Trump, the summit’s real deal-maker, has never looked so strong.
Starmer’s “big” contribution to the process was to use recognition of the state of Palestine as a deadline threat to Israel to bring about a ceasefire. Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu promptly ignored it and rightly condemned the posturing as a reward for terrorism. The US was irritated by the empty gesture while Hamas celebrated it as a “victory.” Nicely judged Sir Keir!
Worryingly, this is no anomaly. Time and time again, Starmer has aligned himself with the wrong side. He has pulled closer to Emmanuel Macron as the French President is at his political weakest, submitted to China by surrendering the UK’s strategic base in the Indian Ocean and is now facing huge questions about what his advisors knew following the collapse of the China spy trial.
It’s a miracle that President Donald Trump is still talking to Starmer at all, let alone treating him with a friendship that he does not deserve.
When asked if Trump should get the Nobel Peace prize, Starmer swerved the question. Yet he was happy to pose for photographs beside him. It’s a good thing Trump is an Anglophile with a soft spot for our monarchy or Starmer would be banished to the wilderness of fading, economically irrelevant European powers alongside Germany and France.
Which brings us to the US president. What Trump has demonstrated this week is that he holds a master class in real power world politics. By keeping the US economically and militarily strong, and making friends with both Arabs and Israelis, Trump has real leverage.
His unwavering support of Israel, tempered by justified criticism of their wayward assault on Qatar, making Netanyahu phone through an apology in the White House, earned him the respect of neighbouring Arabs.
His diplomatic trip to the Middle East earlier in the year, including visits to Saudi Arabia and Qatar, underlined his closeness to Arabs in the region. Don’t forget it was Trump who initiated the Abraham Accords in his first administration, normalising relations between Israel and some Arab states.
Starmer and his lefty ministers could never achieve that because they are too full of self-righteous prejudice against wealthy Arabs and Israelis. During Labour’s recent party conference, members backed a motion urging the Government to ban all its arms sales with Israel and accuse it of having “committed genocide”.
Starmer pompously declared he’d put nation before party when he became prime minister, but he has betrayed Britain by putting sectarian party politics before our best global interests.
Everything Labour does, from hobbling the economy with excessive taxation and pursuing a self-destructive net zero energy policy, ensures we are a less powerful nation. Trump has tried to advise the UK by saying Starmer should make the most of our oil and gas in the North Sea, but the Prime Minister would rather follow the green extremism of Ed Miliband.
Trump needs us to be a stronger, richer nation so we can make a full, effective contribution to Western defence, but Starmer prefers to make decisions based on international law or woke concerns – he is a north London lefty lawyer while Trump is a New York business deal maker after all.
But whenever Trump is triumphant, you can be sure that Starmer and his much diminished buddy Macron will be there, heartily shaking hands and grinning away. Why? Because Trump wields the real power and everyone else wants to ride on his coat-tails.
Above all else, Trump wants to make wealth for his nation and improve the lives of his citizens. Starmer and the rest of the leftist global elite are happy to sacrifice that for the regard of like-minded poseurs.
That is why Trump can make a real difference in the world, whereas Starmer and the rest just look on. Future politicians should go to college to study how the intuitive, quixotic American president can do good in the world by also putting his own nation first.