As often when external players comment on the conflict between Israel and Gaza, the Prime Minister was speaking a careful half-truth. The wonder is that it happened at all.
The return of Donald Trump has given Israel cover to make an agreement which is vastly unpalatable to many of Benjamin Netanyahu’s supporters and causes deep concern across a lot of Israeli society about the risks engaged in return for the joy of seeing hostages come home.
That is why a new start in Washington is so important. Trump’s desire to grasp the mantle of world statesman instantly from his Democrat predecessor has been beneficial. In truth, Antony Blinken as a tireless Secretary of State did most of the heavy lifting with Qatar (the key intermediary) soothing opposition in Israel, but the last attempt by Biden to secure a deal fell apart. Trump will doubtless claim at the inauguration tomorrow that he pulled it off “by day one” of his tenure. Boastful it will be. But true also. Momentum matters in these things.
Yet main strategic antagonist, Iran, which has provided resource and logistical back up to violent anti-Israel groupings in Hezbollah and Hamas, has suffered a series of weakening setbacks, crowned by the fall of another of its disagreeable client powers in the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad in Syria at the end of last year.
This may also be the area that could come unstuck, which is why he has underlined the right to go back into Gaza, for security reasons but equally to reassure opponents that he has not gone soft on Hamas.
The presence of Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell at a pro-Palestinian march in London at the weekend reawakened unquiet ghosts for the party’s present leadership, after Starmer had to deal with the bitter aftermath of anti-semitism in the party.
Relative to its “whatever it takes” position after 7 October, the official Starmer position has been a balancing act – evincing sympathy with the Palestinian cause, while not falling out with Netanyahu or phrasing criticism in any way which might get the UK off on the wrong foot with a new and volatile President. But fence-sitting is unlikely to be sustainable – real views on what happens will need to be embraced by the PM.
So Trump will soon be faced with setting a new direction on Iran to stop its enriched uranium programme. He might be able to prod Iran into a deal (Tehran relying on the “strategic partnership” signed with Russia earlier this week looks desperate, and Moscow has other wars to get on with).
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Read MoreFor the next few weeks, the unfolding of the hostage releases and relative peace in Gaza will keep us holding our breath. We are not, however, near the end of this story in the big picture. It marks the beginning of an era where the choices will loom large and tepid formulations will look like evasions. Events in the Middle East have a diehard habit of echoing across the political battlefields of Britain – and soon at that.
Anne McElvoy is host of POLITICO’s Power Play podcast – daily this week from the World Economic Forum at Davos
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