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Parliament's vote to recognise a Palestinian state contains a warning for Britain: the Labour Party is unable to either articulate or formulate a coherent policy on Israel. The man who led the motion, Labour MP Grahame Morris, was forced to apologise earlier this year for appearing to compare Israel to the Nazis.
When it came to a vote, Douglas Alexander urged his party's MPs to back the motion - but senior pro-Israel opposition figures, including Ed Balls, Jim Murphy and Rachel Reeves refused. In a final, stellar fudge, Labour whips told MPs that while they were not obliged to vote, if they did turn up, they had to vote in favour.
Meanwhile, the vote will likely contribute towards the opposite of what it is designed to do achieve: isolation, unilateralism and aversion to peace talks on both sides of the fence. It will add fervour to the international anti-Israel campaign, which means more boycotts and more attacks on Jews. So much for encouraging peace.
Given that the person who has presided over this catalogue of incompetence is Ed Miliband, a man who could be prime minister in seven months' time, we should be deeply concerned.