The uncertainty about Ed Miliband’s prohibition on trade with Israeli businesses in the Occupied Territories is whether in practice it achieves what Miliband says is his primary aim, namely to keep alive the possibility of a Palestinian state co-existing with Israel. As I write, Netanyahu and his ministers are ramping up anti-British rhetoric, expelling British diplomats, and imposing an entry ban on a dozen British MPs, in gestures they think will woo voters for Israel’s forthcoming general election. Which might not matter if any realistic replacement for Netanyahu was in favour of the two state solution, or if Israeli public opinion still favoured genuine Palestinian autonomy, but neither is the case. So there is a risk that - at least until there is a Democrat in the Whitehouse - the trade ban announced by the UK, Canada and France will reinforce a miserable status quo. Which is not to say it is of no value to Burnham and Miliband. But the less ambiguous benefit for them is in wooing their own MPs and seeing off the threat from the Greens. They’ve faced intense pressure from their MPs for tougher action against Israel. Even before Burnham was installed, his colleagues briefed me he would attempt to heal the big split in his party with this initiative. And with the by-election looming in Starmer’s old seat of Holborn and St Pancras, the threat from Polanski and the Greens may have been lessened. However Miliband and Burnham have divided the UK’s Jewish community - which is torn between those who say the demonisation of the Israeli government will ramp up antisemitism and others who agree with Miliband that Netanyahu is complicit in the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians and must be called out. Miliband himself laid on with a trowel that he is a “proud British Jew” descended from Holocaust survivors. He did so because he wanted no room for doubt that he supports the existence of Israel. He added that “holding Jewish people responsible for the actions of the Israeli government is anti semitism, pure and simple”, which is a point I’ve been boring on about for years. Diaspora Jews - like me and Miliband - are no more responsible for what goes on in Israeli politics than diaspora North Koreans are for what goes on in Pyongyang. But in which case it probably would have been defter to make only a glancing reference to his own Jewish identity. His sanctions against Israel should stand or fall only on their merits. Whether the architect is a Jew or gentile should be irrelevant.