Summary: UK at odds with Kerry on Israel, will have to take policy decisions with one eye on Trump. Revelations about Israeli subversion in Britain.
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An interesting report. However according to the 5 January Times of Israel report Mike Freer MP (who resigned his position as a parliamentary private secretary in 2014 in order to vote against the House of Commons motion calling for the recognition of a state of Palestine) only “suggests” that Teresa May was blindsided by the FCO, and the Times of Israel correspondent comments “It is still unclear to what extent Downing Street was involved in the decision-making process over the vote and its build-up.”
Widespread media coverage of the preparation of the draft of Security Council resolution 2334 concentrated on the US: would they veto, abstain, or even just conceivably vote yes? Washington may well have informed London of the decision in advance, but that would usually be only shortly before the debate. So the instructions to the UK permanent representative at the UN must have taken account of the possibility that Washington would veto and we would face a delicate choice: vote against the US, or abandon our long-standing policy.
If the FCO failed to inform No 10 of all this they were extraordinarily remiss, incredibly so given the background of Theresa May’s recent public disagreement with Boris Johnson over Saudi Arabia and “puppeteering”.
Boris Johnson told the House of Commons today 10 January that the UK was closely involved in drafting Security Council resolution 2334. Asked what Trump thinks about settlements he said it was too early to say.
According to Mike Freer, MP for Finchley and Golders Green, “Theresa May was “blindsided” by the Foreign Office over Britain’s support for the United Nations resolution on settlements,” (http://jewishnews.timesofisrael.com/theresa-may-was-blindsided-over-anti-israel-vote/).