Miliband speaks of a Middle East policy shift - so it's time to pick a side

British Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband’s words, in his speech to the Labour Party conference in Liverpool on Monday, were striking. Gaza is a “stain on the conscience of the world”, he said, adding that those who protested at the Labour government’s support for Israel “were right”. Clearly, this is a significant rhetorical departure from the Starmer era, when Labour had to be dragged kicking and screaming into making even the most tepid criticisms of Israel. In his address to conference delegates, Miliband took aim at “ethnic cleansing by the settler terrorists” in the occupied West Bank, along with “war crimes” in Gaza and Israel’s “illegal occupation of Palestine ”. He vowed to “match words with actions”.