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Inside Britain\u2019s Parliament, lawmakers jeered, booed, and stormed out of the House of Commons to protest the speaker\u2019s handling of a vote calling for a cease-fire in Gaza. Outside, a crowd of pro-Palestinian demonstrators projected the slogan, \u201cFrom the river to the sea,\u201d on to the facade of Big Ben, drawing denunciations from those who view it as a rallying cry for the eradication of Israel.<\/p>\n
The chaotic scenes in London last week captured how Israel\u2019s war in Gaza is reverberating far beyond the Middle East. From the United States to Europe, the brutal Oct. 7 attack by Hamas militants and Israel\u2019s devastating response has inflamed passions, upended politics, and heightened tensions within Muslim and Jewish communities.<\/p>\n
The fights are not only over intractable questions of war, peace, and moral justice. In Britain, political parties and the public are not actually that divided over how to respond to Gaza; a solid majority back a cease-fire<\/a>. Instead, the humanitarian crisis in Gaza has also become a cudgel for opponents to brandish against each other.<\/p>\n The governing Conservative Party seized on anti-Israel comments made by a Labour Party parliamentary candidate to accuse Labour of failing to stamp out a legacy of anti-Semitism in its ranks. Labour pointed to disparaging comments by a Tory lawmaker about London\u2019s Muslim mayor as evidence of simmering Islamophobia among Conservatives.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Both parties maneuvered furiously in Parliament over the cease-fire resolution, not because they differed much on the substance but because the Conservatives saw a chance to surface rifts within Labour over Britain\u2019s initial backing of Israel.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cIt\u2019s an example of how a really serious issue has been distorted by the prism of party politics in Britain,\u201d said Steven Fielding, an emeritus professor of political history at the University of Nottingham.<\/p>\n In the United States, anger among some Democrats at President Biden\u2019s robust support of Israel fueled a protest vote<\/a> in Michigan\u2019s primary this week, raising questions about whether the war could alter the outcome of a closely-fought presidential election.<\/p>\n In France, President Emmanuel Macron has been forced to tack away<\/a> from his pro-Israel stance under pressure from France\u2019s large Muslim population. In Germany, with its responsibility for the Holocaust, support for Israel has remained a bedrock principle, though the foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock, has recently begun emphasizing<\/a> the importance of the \u201csurvival of the Palestinians.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The conflict has awakened ghosts in British politics as well: When Lee Anderson, the blunt-spoken Conservative lawmaker, said \u201cIslamists\u201d had \u201cgot control\u201d of Sadiq Khan, London\u2019s mayor, he was trafficking in the kind of anti-Muslim sentiment that flared two decades ago after London was hit with terrorist attacks by Islamist militants.<\/p>\n