Britain’s Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband said something in Parliament this week with which I find it very difficult to disagree. “Holding British Jews responsible for the actions of the Israeli Government is antisemitism, plain and simple.”

A Jew living in London or Manchester is not responsible for a decision made by Benjamin Netanyahu’s government. But that doesn’t mean they won’t be held responsible for it. And that, I think, is where the argument that has erupted between Miliband and Britain’s Chief Rabbi, Sir Ephraim Mirvis, becomes more complicated.

On Tuesday, Miliband announced a major shift in British policy towards Israel and the West Bank. Britain will ban imports from Israeli settlements, sanction companies and individuals involved in settlement expansion, prohibit the advertising of settlement property in the UK and refuse licences for arms and other exports that materially contribute to the occupation.

He also said something no British government had said before. Britain now regards Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories as unlawful. And he used extraordinarily strong language. “The British government agrees that there is ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in areas of the West Bank, perpetrated by settler terrorists,” he told Parliament. He accused members of the Israeli government of making statements and taking actions that support the forced displacement of Palestinians.

Mirvis responded by calling it “truly a dark day........

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