Benjamin Netanyahu has described the UK as the “Islamic Republic of Britain” in a provocative interview that is likely to deepen tensions between London and Jerusalem. Speaking on a podcast hosted by Avi Harush, a former military officer whose son was killed while fighting Hamas in Gaza, the Israeli prime minister also recalled meeting Winston Churchill’s grandson. Netanyahu said Churchill’s grandson, who is also named Winston, was a “nice man” and a “lover of Israel” who viewed the Six-Day War — the 1967 conflict in which Israel captured and occupied the West Bank — in a “positive” light. “Just try to find that kind of attitude in Britain now — or in what’s known as ‘The Islamic Republic of Britain’. You won’t find it,” Netanyahu said. The Israeli leader also referred to Israel’s long-standing objective of preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons, while making another pointed remark about the UK.
“Someone said — you know — that the first Islamic republic with nuclear weapons will be the Islamic Republic of Britain,” Netanyahu said. “So, we’re making sure there won’t be another one like that in Iran.” Relations between the UK and Israel have become increasingly strained over the past year, with the war in Gaza and Britain’s recognition of Palestine as a state among the key flashpoints. When that recognition was announced, Netanyahu accused Sir Keir Starmer of appeasing Hamas. Sir Keir’s successor has, in recent weeks, accused Netanyahu of attempting to make a two-state solution impossible.
Andy Burnham has since indicated a change in the UK’s tone on the Middle East, apologising for the Labour Party’s response to Israel’s actions in Gaza over recent years. He acknowledged that Labour’s stance had alienated a significant share of its voters and caused “huge hurt”. Burnham also said Britain had been “too slow to call for a ceasefire” and argued that the previous government “got it wrong”. Although Sir Keir supported humanitarian pauses in the fighting to allow aid into Gaza, he stopped short of demanding a full ceasefire. In the days after the October 7, 2023 attacks, he faced intense criticism after saying Israel had the “right” to cut off power and water supplies to Gaza.
He later clarified his comments, saying he had meant that Israel had the right to defend itself. The developments come as Jared Kushner, US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and negotiator, is expected to travel to the Middle East next week in an effort to push forward plans to end the conflict in Gaza, after a White House-backed proposal met resistance from Israel. An official from the Board of Peace, the body set up by Trump to oversee the fragile Israel-Hamas ceasefire, said Kushner would arrive in Israel on Sunday alongside the board’s high representative, Nickolay Mladenov, and former British prime minister Sir Tony Blair. The delegation is then due to travel to Cairo, where a Palestinian technocratic group expected to take control of Gaza under a US-brokered ceasefire arrangement has been holding meetings for several months.
The official, speaking on condition of anonymity because the trip’s details have not yet been finalised, said the meetings were intended to underline Trump and the Board of Peace’s determination to “see peace, prosperity and sustainable security emerge” in a demilitarised Gaza where Hamas has relinquished control and reconstruction can begin in the devastated territory. However, a recent plan announced by Trump, under which Hamas would disarm and Israel would withdraw its forces from the Palestinian territory, has been rejected by Israel, exposing an unusual public rift with the White House. Hamas accepted the proposal to decommission its weapons, but Netanyahu said in recent days that Israel would not pull back until the group had fully disarmed. The plan had been viewed as a possible breakthrough in efforts to end the Gaza war. It built on an October ceasefire that halted major military operations and secured the release of the remaining hostages held in Gaza, but progress on other parts of the agreement has since stalled.
