Britain would have lost the Second World War and would be speaking German if Sir Keir Starmer had been running the country at the time, the US ambassador to Israel has said in a stinging attack.
Condemning the prime minister’s criticism of Israel’s plan for a full military takeover of Gaza, Mike Huckabee wrote on social media: “So Israel is expected to surrender to Hamas and feed them even though Israeli hostages are being starved?
“Did UK surrender to Nazis and drop food to them?”
In a post on X on Friday, Mr Huckabee wrote: “Ever heard of Dresden, PM Starmer? That wasn’t food you dropped. If you had been PM then UK would be speaking German!”.
In a follow-up post, the US ambassador to Israel suggested Sir Keir “ought to sit this one out”.
Mr Huckabee was responding to Sir Keir’s statement that Israel’s decision to pursue its plan to take control of Gaza city was “wrong”.
Sir Keir said that the Israeli government’s plans would “do nothing to bring an end to this conflict or to help secure the release of the hostages”.
US vice-president JD Vance has also described a “disagreement” about how the US and UK could achieve their “common objectives” in the Middle East, and said Donald Trump’s administration had “no plans to recognise a Palestinian state”.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office has unveiled new principles for military action, which include “the demilitarisation of the Gaza Strip”, “Israeli security control in the Gaza Strip”, and “the establishment of an alternative civil administration that is neither Hamas nor the Palestinian Authority”.
The Israel Defense Forces “will prepare for taking control of Gaza City while distributing humanitarian assistance to the civilian population outside the combat zones”.
Sir Keir has pledged to recognise a Palestinian state in September unless the Israeli government meets a series of conditions towards ending the war in Gaza.
These include taking “substantive steps to end the appalling situation in Gaza”, “agreeing to a ceasefire, and making clear there will be no annexations in the West Bank”.
Speaking while on holiday in the UK and staying at foreign secretary David Lammy’s grace-and-favour retreat in Kent, Mr Vance said the UK “is going to make its decision” on Palestinian recognition, but warned: “We have no plans to recognise a Palestinian state.”
“I don’t know what it would mean to really recognise a Palestinian state, given the lack of functional government there.”
Mr Vance added on Friday: “There’s a lot of common objectives here. There is some, I think, disagreement about how exactly to accomplish those common objectives, but look, it’s a tough situation.”
Meanwhile, Mr Lammy joined several allied foreign ministers in “strongly” rejecting Israel’s plans for Gaza, warning they “will aggravate the catastrophic humanitarian situation, endanger the lives of the hostages, and further risk the mass displacement of civilians”.
A joint statement from the foreign ministers of the UK, Australia, Italy, Germany and New Zealand said: “The plans that the government of Israel has announced risk violating international humanitarian law.
“Any attempts at annexation or of settlement extension violate international law.”
The statement added: “We are united in our commitment to the implementation of a negotiated two-state solution as the only way to guarantee that both Israelis and Palestinians can live side by side in peace, security, and dignity.
“A political resolution based on a negotiated two-state solution requires the total demilitarisation of Hamas and its complete exclusion from any form of governance in the Gaza Strip, where the Palestinian Authority must have a central role.”
An emergency UN Security Council meeting to discuss Israel’s plan had been due to take place on Saturday, but has been rescheduled to Sunday at around 3pm UK time.
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