Picking apart Miliband's shadow appointments

It's tempting to play "spot the Zionist", "spot the Islamist appeaser" or even "spot the closet antisemite", whenever a new list of political appointments is released. The list of Shadow Ministers published this week is an open invitation to do just this. There is no doubt thata Labour front bench with John Denham as Home Secretary and Sadiq Khan as Foreign Secretary would be
a very different prospect from a team with Jim Murphy and Ivan Lewis in the same positions. However, all parties are coalitions and it would seem that Ed Miliband's appointments are a genuine attempt to reach out across Blair v Brown and even Miliband v Miliband lines.

Jim Murphy, who ran David Miliband's campaign, will be a strong voice for Israel in Shadow Cabinet discussions as defence spokesman. Ed Balls will not be soft on security issues at the Home Office and worked hard with Gordon Brown on economic regeneration in the Palestinian territories when he was at the Treasury.

Sadiq Khan is joined by pro-Palestinian human rights campaigner Andy Slaughter at the Justice Department. Neither will welcome new coalition legislation to change the law on universal jurisdiction.

The other key appointment is Caroline Flint at Communities and Local Government, who will take charge of Labour's policy on social cohesion. Although she is not quite in the hard-line mould of her good friend Hazel Blears, she is seen as a tough, no-nonsense operator, unlikely to advocate a policy of accommodation with UK-based Islamists. One of her first jobs will be to respond to the review of the £60 million Prevent counter-terrorism programme, presently being carried out across government. Eric Pickles is keen to pass responsibility for counter-terrorism to the Home Office, but it may return to him via the back door if duties for countering radicalism pass to local councils.