Foreign Secretary David Miliband has called on Israel “as a beacon of democracy” to help find a political solution to its conflict with Hamas.
He told MPs that Israel argued against accepting UN resolutions which saw equivalence between a democratic state and a terrorist organisation.
“There is and can be no equivalence,” said Mr Miliband. Hamas had shown itself over a number of years “ready to be murderous in word and deed”.
Israel, on the other hand, was “a thriving, democratic state. One consequence of the distinction between a democratic government and a terrorist organisation is that democratic governments are held to significantly higher standards, notably by their own people.”