Editorial: Keir Starmer has rewarded Hamas terrorism in his threat to Israel

​Two things that you cannot say about Keir Starmer is that he is strong and consistent in his politics.​

On matters relating to Israel alone he has fluctuated considerably in a few years.

Sir Keir, in opposition, defended Jeremy Corbyn after he became leader of the Labour Party, and was lined up as part of Mr Corbyn’s shadow cabinet, and advocated for that veteran radical to become prime minister.

Then, after Mr Corbyn was ejected as Labour leader, Sir Keir became so determined to stamp out anti-semitism in the party they had both led he ended up being complicit in removing Mr Corbyn from the movement altogether. There is even a case to be made, to which this newspaper is receptive despite our own strong support for Israel, that some such criticism by hardcore leftists as anti-semitic was unfair, because at least some of them were passionately anti the state of Israel rather than Jews.

But there is no question that a strain of the Labour movement has been deeply anti-semitic, not least some of the large radical Muslim fringes. After all, Islamic extremists are openly anti-semitic and even supply youngsters in places such as Gaza with caricatures akin to the grotesque anti-semitic cartoons that the Nazis used.

Now Sir Keir is scared of that hard left element within his party, including Muslim activists, so that he has presented Israel with an ultimatum that, if not met, will lead to the recognition of Palestine as a state. This is the man who, with his foreign secretary David Lammy, had in effect already said Israeli leaders would be arrested if they come to the UK.

Aside from the fact that it is not Britain’s place to instruct Israel, as Emily Damari, the British-Israeli former hostage of Hamas says, to make this move now, and not say after a deal such as might have followed the rejected Israeli offer in 2000, ”risks rewarding terror”.