When Benny Gantz, a member of Israel’s war cabinet, met with British Foreign Secretary David Cameron in London on Wednesday, he got a strong message that Israel must do more to allow humanitarian aid to flow into Gaza.
It was the kind of ministerial-level meeting that usually attracts modest attention amid the high-level diplomatic fracas that has enveloped the Israel-Hamas war. But Mr. Gantz and Mr. Cameron are not the only workers.
Mr. Gantz, the former chief of staff of the Israel Defense Forces, is a prominent political rival of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and Mr. Netanyahu expressed deep anger at what he saw as the Israeli leader’s unsanctioned trip.
Mr Cameron, a former prime minister, has achieved unusual dimensions as foreign secretary, pushing on international tours on issues such as the war in Gaza and Ukraine, where he is often treated as though he is still in his own right. is in the old job.
The unusual views of the meeting – almost two shadow leaders – spoke to the specific domestic politics of each country. Israel is in the grip of a devastating war that has drawn Mr. Netanyahu and Mr. Gantz into a temporary alliance. Britain is in the twilight stages of an era of Conservative-led governments, with a prime minister, Rishi Shankar, who is more preoccupied with general elections later this year than foreign policy.
For Britain, diplomats and experts said, appointing Mr. Cameron to deliver a tough message to Israel is valuable because it will register more than if it came from a standard-issue cabinet minister. It also protects Mr. Sink from the political risk of directly pushing Mr. Netanyahu and possibly rejecting him.
“Cameroon is a big beast, relatively speaking,” said Daniel Levy, a former Israeli peace negotiator who now runs the US/Middle East Project, an institute in London and New York. “They want Gantz to know how desperate the humanitarian situation has become, just what strain it is putting on the relationship and how difficult it will be to continue.”
In the meeting, Mr. Cameron said that in a statement, he and Mr. Gantz discussed efforts to stop the war, and Mr. Cameron urged him to increase aid. While he said Britain supports Israel’s right to self-defense, “as the occupying power in Gaza, Israel has a legal responsibility to ensure the availability of aid to civilians.”
“That responsibility has consequences,” Mr Cameron added, “when we as the UK assess whether Israel complies with international humanitarian law.”
Mr. Gantz also met with Britain’s national security adviser, Tim Barrow, a session that included Mr. Sink, according to a readout from Mr. Gantz’s office.
Giving Mr. Gantz these meetings also sends a message to Mr. Netanyahu. The prime minister has frustrated officials in London and Washington by refusing to halt the military campaign or agree to the terms of a hostage deal with Hamas, not to mention scrapping a future peace deal with the Palestinians.
There are also disputes within the War Cabinet on some of these issues. Mr. Gantz has sometimes allied with another former top military commander, Gadi Esenkot, against Mr. Netanyahu, according to Israeli analysts. This is complicated by the fact that Mr Gantz is seen as a prime ministerial rival in future elections.
“Gantz and Essenkot have openly disagreed with Netanyahu over the terms of the Hamas hostage deal,” Mr Levy said. “I imagine that the British moved gently to understand what was going on at home.”
So far, Mr. Gantz, 64, has higher approval ratings than Mr. Netanyahu, who was plagued by legal troubles before the war and is blamed by many Israelis for intelligence failures in the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas militants. A recent poll by Israeli TV broadcaster Channel 13 showed that if elections were held today, Mr. Gantz’s centrist National Unity Party would win 39 seats in Israel’s Knesset, while Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud would win just 17 seats. the seats
Before sailing to London, Mr Gantz visited Washington, where he met on Monday with Vice President Kamala Harris, Secretary of State Anthony J. Blanken and national security adviser Jack Sullivan, but not – as some Israeli journalists had previously reported – Guess what – with the president. Biden.
Mr Gantz told Mr Netanyahu about his plans to fly to the US to coordinate the messages he would deliver in meetings with US officials, according to a statement from his office. Mr Netanyahu nevertheless expressed his displeasure, and Mr Gantz made the trip without diplomatic support.
In Washington as in London, the most pressing issue was stopping the flow of humanitarian aid. Ms. Harris called for a pause in the fighting in Gaza, according to the White House, and urged the Israeli government to allow aid to be delivered to those in need in Gaza.
“Kamala Harris, in particular, is playing up progressives and Arab Americans by highlighting the defense of Palestinians in Gaza,” said Martin S. Indek, former US ambassador to Israel. “I think he got the message, and we’re going to see Israel get more, hopefully more, aid flows.”
If Ms. Harris is seen as a supporter of the Palestinians within the Biden White House, Mr. Cameron plays a similar role in the British government. Last month, during a visit to the Falkland Islands, he said Israel should focus on a ceasefire “for now,” rather than a military offensive in Rafah, a city south of Gaza that has become a haven for fleeing Palestinians.
Speaking in the House of Lords on Tuesday, Mr Cameron expressed the frustration of British officials at the slow pace of aid. He warned that civilians trapped in Gaza face the real possibility of famine and disease.
“We have a whole set of things that we have asked the Israelis to do, but I have to report that the aid they got in February was half of what they got in January,” Mr Cameron said. “Therefore, patience needs to run very thin, and a whole series of warnings needs to be given, starting with my meeting with Minister Gantz.”
Critics say Mr Cameron’s tough words have sometimes caused problems. Last month, for example, he said Britain could consider recognizing a Palestinian state even before peace talks between Palestine and Israel. This angered Israelis and helped prompt a vote in the Knesset, in which 99 members voted against any unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state.
Mr Sink later clarified that there had been no change in British policy, which is to pursue a two-state solution to the conflict. The United States also supports a Palestinian state that would result from a negotiated settlement with Israel.
Mr. Andak, the former ambassador, said the Knesset vote enabled Mr. Netanyahu to say to the Biden administration that “there is wall-to-wall opposition to a Palestinian state, based on something the administration had no intention of doing.”