British Parliament: Recognize Palestine • Herzog: "Failure""

October 14, 2014   

By a majority of 274 supporters against 12 opponents, the British Parliament calls on the British government to recognize a Palestinian state and to pressure Israel to establish such a state. Members of the British government did not participate in the vote, and the purpose of the vote is to exert pressure from Parliament on the government, so that it will put pressure on Israel. Beyond this and the declarative statement, the vote has no real meaning. British Prime Minister David Cameron announced through his spokesman that he would not participate in the vote and that his government would choose the right time to declare recognition of a Palestinian state, and it would do so at a time when such a move would indeed be beneficial to the peace process in the Middle East. Furthermore, the British Foreign Office announced that it sees the vote as an event that could harm the diplomatic process, and that the British government believes that recognition of the Palestinian state will only occur after negotiations and with the consent of both sides. Opposition leader Yitzhak (Bozhi) Herzog attacked the prime minister this morning (Tuesday), following the support of members of parliament in London for the proposal to recognize Palestine as a state. "The British parliament's decision to recognize a Palestinian state is another resounding failure from Netanyahu's school of thought." "This is a failure of Netanyahu, Lieberman and the entire government," Herzog noted in a conversation with News 2 Online. "Israel is constantly receiving criticism from all corners of the world and does not understand that a major political storm is approaching.".