BICOM

Something is changing in the Jewish identity of British opposition leader Ed Miliband, and his visit to Israel this week is another chance to watch this develop.

When Ed Miliband made his first major address in 2010 as leader of the Labour party, he gave the UK Jewish community and other supporters of Israel some cause for concern. In a speech which was light on foreign policy, he made a point of condemning Israel’s policies in the Gaza Strip, and declared that we must “strain every sinew” to end the blockage on Gaza. There was no mention of Hamas or its rockets.

This approach played to views common among the British Labour party grassroots, and the British left more generally, which is strongly supportive of the Palestinian cause.

Ed Miliband’s leadership campaign succeeded by outflanking his rival, and older brother – former Foreign Secretary David Miliband – by shifting to the left, earning the support of the trade unions and the nickname “Red Ed.” Though the Miliband brothers are the sons of a well-known Marxist intellectual, Ralph Miliband, they had both been closely associated with the modernising, centrist, “New Labour” project led by Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. Ed deliberately distanced himself from that branding, tarnished in part by Tony Blair’s decision to send British troops to participate in the Iraq War.

Read the article in full at Haaretz