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LONDON: UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer hosted Israeli President Isaac Herzog for a contentious meeting Wednesday, with the visiting head of state vowing to “voice firm opposition” to Britain’s recent stance on Israel.
Herzog’s visit comes after Starmer’s government has in recent months toughened its criticism of how Israel is waging its war in Gaza, triggering pushback from Israeli leaders.
The pair shook hands in front of photographers and TV cameras in Downing Street, with few smiles on display, as the meeting got underway Wednesday afternoon.
“The President will express strong objections to the British government’s intention to recognize a Palestinian state, and protest the notion of sanctions against the only democracy in the Middle East,” Herzog’s office said.
Starmer announced in late July his government would recognize a Palestinian state in mid-September unless Israel takes specific steps toward peace in Gaza.
It has also sanctioned Israeli finance minister Bezalel Smotrich and national security minister Itamar Ben Gvir.
Rights groups and some UK lawmakers, including from the ruling center-left Labour party, have said the government should not have allowed Herzog’s visit to go ahead.
Amid criticism of Israel’s strike against Hamas leaders in Qatar the previous day, Starmer told MPs earlier Wednesday he would make it “absolutely clear” that “we condemn Israel’s action.”
He also vowed to stress that “restrictions on aid must be lifted, the offensive in Gaza must stop, and settlement building must cease” in occupied Palestinian territories.
Starmer’s government has also come under pressure from critics of Israel to say the country has committed genocide in its military campaign in Gaza.
Shouts of “stop the genocide” could be heard from a protester outside the Downing Street gates as Herzog arrived.
A protester threw a red smoke canister toward Herzog’s convoy as it left. Police were seen detaining a person and removing the canister after the vehicles drove away.
London insisted this week it has not determined Israel is committing genocide, following the publication by a parliamentary watchdog committee of a September 1 letter by then-foreign secretary David Lammy.
It stated: “As per the Genocide Convention, the crime of genocide occurs only where there is specific ‘intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group’.
“The Government has not concluded that Israel is acting with that intent.”
Starmer’s official spokesman has said that the letter — written just prior to Lammy becoming interior minister in a government reshuffle last week — “reflects the UK’s position that we’ve not come to any conclusion” on the matter.

WASHINGTON: Former Vice President Kamala Harris says it was “recklessness” for Democrats to leave it to President Joe Biden to decide whether to continue seeking another term last year, but she defends his ability to do the job, according an excerpt of her new book.
Harris, in an excerpt of “107 Days” published Wednesday in The Atlantic, writes that as questions swirled about whether the then-81-year-old Biden should seek re-election, she and others left the decision to him and first lady Jill Biden.
“Was it grace, or was it recklessness? In retrospect, I think it was recklessness,” Harris said.
The remarks are the first time Harris has been publicly critical of Biden’s decision to run again — an ill-fated decision that saw him drop out in July 2024 after a disastrous debate performance, leaving her to head up the Democratic ticket and ultimately lose to Republican Donald Trump.
“The stakes were simply too high,” Harris writes in the book. “This wasn’t a choice that should have been left to an individual’s ego, an individual’s ambition. It should have been more than a personal decision.”
Biden’s office did not immediately have a comment Wednesday.
Throughout the campaign and in its wake, Harris had avoided much criticism of the president she served beside and defended him amid questions about his mental acuity.
In the book excerpt, Harris continues to defend Biden’s ability to do the job but describes him in 2024 and especially at the time of his “debate debacle” as “tired.”
“On his worst day, he was more deeply knowledgeable, more capable of exercising judgment, and far more compassionate than Donald Trump on his best. But at 81, Joe got tired. That’s when his age showed in physical and verbal stumbles,” Harris writes. “I don’t think it’s any surprise that the debate debacle happened right after two back-to-back trips to Europe and a flight to the West Coast for a Hollywood fundraiser. I don’t believe it was incapacity.”
She adds that if she believed Biden were incapacitated, she would have said so out of loyalty to the country.
Harris also blames those close to Biden for unflattering media coverage throughout the time she served as vice president and throwing her under the bus to boost Biden’s public standing.
She writes about receiving a high level of scrutiny as the first female vice president but says “when the stories were unfair or inaccurate, the president’s inner circle seemed fine with it. Indeed, it seemed as if they decided I should be knocked down a little bit more.”
Harris writes that she often learned that Biden’s staff was “adding fuel to negative narratives” that surrounded her, such as stories about her vice presidential office being in disarray and having high turnover.
The former vice president also accuses Biden’s staff of being afraid of her upstaging him, describing a speech she gave in Selma, Alabama, in March of last year in which she called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and more humanitarian aid to be delivered to people there.
“It went viral, and the West Wing was displeased,” Harris says, “I was castigated for, apparently, delivering it too well.”
She suggests that diminishing her also diminished Biden, especially “given the concerns about his age.”
Harris’ success, she writes, would be a marker of Biden’s good judgment and a reassurance to the public that if something happened to the president, she could step in.
“My success was important for him,” she writes. “His team didn’t get it.”
Harris’ book, whose title is a nod to the length of her abbreviated presidential campaign, is set to be published by Simon & Schuster on Sept. 23.