Turning tides?

Several MPs have alluded to the vote being part of a growing international shift in opinion against Israel.

A recent Guardian article quotes an EU official:

“Each time that there is a major event like the second Lebanon war, Operation Cast Lead [in Gaza], the Turkish flotilla, then support for Israel drops back a little more,” said one senior EU official

MP Andy Macdonald said that over 50,000 emails sent to MPs in the last three weeks expressing anger at Israel during the latest Gaza war.

Middle East Eye editor David Hearst says in a Huffington Post column that British attitudes toward Israel have changed.

All Britons today are more likely to be aware of the 14,000 settlements Israel approved during its nine month peace talks with the Palestinians; to wonder where a Palestinian state is going to go , with more than 600,000 settlers in occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank; to acknowledge the insouciant racism of Israeli discourse about non-Jews; to recoil at the cost in Palestinian civilian lives of Israel's definition of its own security.

Britons are losing faith that a solution is just around the corner. The idea of Israel is changing in the minds of its allies. It is no longer a cause. It is becoming heavy baggage.

Hearst talks of the ramifications the vote could have for British politics, in particular the Labour party who have been divided over the vote:

The vote will be a symbolic one. A Palestinian state is a virtual concept, and it has already been recognized by 134 states, most recently by Sweden. But there is nothing symbolic or theoretical about the pressure applied by the Israel lobby on MPs of all parties to toe the line, but particularly a Labour Party led Ed Miliband. The vote in favor would amount to an historic act of defiance with an ally used to dictating the terms of the debate.