Cameron wouldn't have blundered over Israel in Turkey if he had have been in touch with his true values

It doesn't really matter whether the British Prime Minister made his ill judged comments concerning Israel during his visit to Turkey because he believed they would win favour with easily appeased hosts or impress a morally outraged electorate back home or even, heaven forbid, because he actually believed what he was saying to be true. What matters is that in saying what he did Cameron demonstrated one of two things; that either he really doesn't understand Israel or that he has completely lost touch with the values that he and his party purport to stand for.

The modern British Conservative Party has always stood on such principles as freedom of the individual, enterprise, democracy, the importance of the nation state maintaining a strong military for the defence of its citizens and the illegitimacy of terrorism. And if David Cameron knew anything about Israel and the values that its government and society cling to so resolutely then he would know that these principles that should be at the core of his conservatism are the very same core principles of the country that he has so flippantly chastised. And as a self professed moderate and liberal within his party David Cameron should find all the more to admire in the open and progressive nature of Israeli culture and society.

Furthermore before deriding Israel's attempts to defend its civilians from rocket fire by Islamist terror groups he might care to remember how he defends the presence of his own troops in Afghanistan - to keep the streets of Britain safe we are told. Indeed there is a strong case to be made for the link between terror training in Afghanistan and the threat of attacks on British soil, but in comparison to thousands of kasaam rockets being fired in the direction of the homes of over one million Israelis the link seems at best tenuous. Yet if Cameron seems convinced that the Afghan civilian lives lost are a justifiable price worth paying for keeping Britain safe then how can he describe Israel's blockade of Hamas controlled Gaza as unacceptable.

In calling Gaza a 'prison camp' and Israel's attempts to prevent weapons infiltrating the strip as piracy David Cameron is not only making claims that are patently false but he is also further contributing to the problem that he professes a desire to counteract. Such language only emboldens the stubbornness of those who are still holding out against all pressure to try and encourage them to negotiate and cooperate with Israel's efforts for the conflict's resolution. Indeed if demanding Israel abandon its security concerns for the whims of good publicity was not irresponsible enough then the total lack of consideration for the impact of such inflammatory statements in a volatile region is truly concerning.

If Cameron took the time to understand what Israel stands for in the world and the terrible dilemmas it faces, and if he took the time to hold this up against the values that he himself stands for then he would no doubt come to realise that far from talking Israel down he should be doing everything possible to help strengthen her ever precarious position and support the Netanyahu government in its attempts to find a viable way to coexist with its undeniably hostile neighbours.