Efforts are also on to bring about a ceasefire in the 10-month-long war between Israel and Hamas. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is on his ninth visit to the Middle East in 10 months. Before his visit, the foreign ministers of Britain and France also visited Israel on Friday and met the foreign minister there. So that international pressure could be created for a ceasefire agreement, but the visit of these two foreign ministers has created a ruckus.
Actually, what happened was that British Foreign Minister David Lammy and his French counterpart Stephane Sejourne met Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz on Friday and discussed ceasefire and other issues. During this time, the British and French Foreign Ministers had put a yellow solidarity pin on their lapel. This pin is a kind of symbol which shows their solidarity with the Israeli hostages, but when both the Foreign Ministers reached Ramallah to meet Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa, they removed that symbol from their lapel. Israel is furious at this action of the British and French Foreign Ministers.
British newspaper Mail on Sunday quoted former Israeli government spokesman Aylon Levy as saying that if these two ministers had worn the Solidarity pin in front of the Palestinian Prime Minister, it would have sent a clear message to him that both these countries also support the Israeli hostages and then Hamas would have had to consider releasing those hostages immediately.
Several Israeli media reports also said that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu refused to meet British Foreign Minister David Lammy. Israel is also upset with Britain because the new British government has decided to withdraw its objection to the International Criminal Court’s proposed resolution to issue arrest warrants against Netanyahu and his Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. According to Channel 13 News and the Times of Israel, the British government made several requests to the Israeli government for a meeting between Lammy and Netanyahu, but Netanyahu refused to meet.
However, a British website Middle East Eye has quoted sources from the Foreign Ministry as saying that there was no plan for a meeting between David Lammy and Benjamin Netanyahu. Let us tell you that France and Britain, like America, had supported Israel in the war against Hamas and had provided help to Israel at many levels, including weapons. The British army had even provided a symbolic security cover to Israel by landing warships in the sea.
