Three weeks ago, over eight hundred people gathered at the annual CFI lunch to hear Theresa May deliver a paean of praise to Israel and claim to be a true friend of Israel. With hindsight, however, the one sentence that was met with silence, in which she condemned Israeli settlements, was the most important. It is certainly true that British — and US — policy has always opposed settlements. So, too, has this newspaper. But those Zionist groups who have supported UN Resolution 2334 because they also oppose settlements miss the point quite spectacularly. Resolution 2334 was not part of some finely crafted peace process or a simple repeat of long-standing policy. It was gesture politics of the worst kind in a forum that has raised Israel-bashing to a fine art. It had nothing to do with peace and everything to do with these being the last moments of the Obama administration. 

It was also entirely of a piece with Barack Obama’s disastrous tenure of the White House. Russia is now resurgent and occupies part of Ukraine. Millions are dead and displaced in Syria. Iran has been given its head. The US is widely regarded as spineless. And all that he and his equally appalling Secretary of State, John Kerry, can bother themselves to do is to give Israel a kick. As for Britain: our role in this unsavoury incident has been tawdry. Mrs May’s claim is simply nonsense. True friends can indeed disagree. But they do not join in secret with enemies in order to grandstand and bully. UN Resolution 2334 will not, of itself, change much. But it has thrown a light on the hypocrisy and double dealing of our current political leaders.