Spy scandal not at heart of British-Israeli relations
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"The reason Miliband's speech was quite strong is that the left of the Labor Party and the government doesn't feel strong enough to stand up to them," said Rynhold, a senior researcher at Israel' s Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies.
The left is already unhappy with London's close ties with Israel, and wants to see a greater effort to promote Israeli- Palestinian peace talks. Additionally, with a general election in the offing, many of the marginal seats have high Muslim populations, he said.
On the other hand, Rynhold pointed to the extremely close relationship when it comes to intelligence matters. Diplomatically too, Britain "likes to punch above its weight," and be a major player in the Middle East peace process. As a result it requires the trust of Israel, something London understands fully well, he said.
That trust, however, has been eroded by Britain's backing of the Goldstone report, which accused Israel of committing war crimes during the fighting in Gaza over a year ago.
Change of British government
Brits will go to the polls for a general election some time within the next 10 weeks. As it stands, the main opposition Conservative Party is in pole position.
Traditionally, the Tories have been more supportive of Israel than Labor. However, that does not guarantee changes on the ground.
A change in government in Britain would not have anywhere near the same effect as the replacement of U.S. President George W. Bush with Barack Obama, former director general of Israel's Foreign Ministry Alon Liel told Xinhua on Wednesday.
There has been a total rethink of policy with regard to Israel in Washington, but Liel disagreed with the opinion that any similar change in Britain will be offset by stronger influences.
"On the political front there will be a change, but not at the European Union or the peace Quartet. The question of Labor or Conservative will be minor when it comes to the international uprising against Israel regarding the peace process," he said.
For Liel though, the brouhaha regarding al-Mabhouh's assassination and other Israeli-British differences will disappear pretty quickly if there is progress on the Palestinian-Israeli track.
"If in the next few days or weeks the talks will start and they are perceived as serious by the world, by Europe and by Britain, then there'll be no long-term problems," he said.
On the other hand, warned Liel, if the negotiations do not commence or, worse than that, violence erupts, or if the talks are not serious "then we have a problem with Britain -- Labor or Conservative, with all of Europe and with the entire world."
