By now, we’re used to Donald Trump expediting some dramatic changes in policy in an almost casual manner. But in giving the British government the green light to recognise Palestine as an independent sovereign state, the president has sprung one of his more significant surprises.
It follows very closely after his rejection of Benjamin Netanyahu’s grotesque claim that there is no starvation in Gaza. It opens up policy options for Sir Keir Starmer that previously seemed off-limits if the prime minister were to preserve his special personal rapport with Mr Trump. It means that, at the cabinet meeting this week, the British government could take a historic step comparable to the Balfour Declaration of 1917 that recognised the case for a Jewish homeland in Palestine.
