Could the Royal Family help bring Middle East peace?

[snokitty]

Could the Royal Family help bring bring about change in the Middle East | Royal | News | Daily Express

As she gathered her family around her at Windsor to mark the holiest day in the Christian calendar, this most devout of ladies, the supreme governor of the Church of England, might well have been thinking the chances of a trip to see where Jesus lived, died and was resurrected have passed her by.

She is the most travelled head of state in history and has visited 116 countries during her long reign but it is probably too late for her to ever visit Israel and the Palestinian territories.

Why, Israelis ask, has she visited so many countries, including many run by dictators, but not ours, the only real democracy in the Middle East?

The answer undoubtedly lies not, as it is often alleged, in any personal animosity towards the Jews or any perceived pro-Palestinian bias because of her close friendship with Arab royals.

It is because official royal visits, particularly State Visits, are designed to set the seal on close relations between friendly nations. Britain is certainly no enemy of Israel but it is difficult for the UK to advocate a royal visit until there is a resolution to the Israel-Palestine question, the world¹s most intractable conflict.

Security too is undoubtedly a problem, according to Dickie Arbiter, a former Buckingham Palace press secretary and the London-born son of German Jews who fled to Britain to avoid Nazi persecution.

If you go to one, you have to go to the other and the security isn¹t right for that sort of thing, he says.

I would like to think that in the fullness of time a British sovereign could go there ­ who would have thought that a British sovereign could go to Ireland?

[Limabeany]

Privately, she must have personal reasons for not going... Most devout iof ladies?  :orchid:

[Curryong]

Privately, she must have personal reasons for not going... Most devout iof ladies?  :orchid:

I think the Queen's a deeply religious woman. She attends church regularly, is said to pray often and to try and follow Christian precepts in her daily life.

Partly because of Britain's history there isn't a particularly strong pro-Israeli feeling there, IMO of course. There is also, as there should be, some sympathy for the Palestinian plight.

I think in those sort of situations the Royal family does take great notice of Foreign Office advice. The last thing that's needed is for one side or the other to take offence at a royal visit and make the situation worse. JMO.

[tiaras]

Of all the things they maintain a diplomatic non interference stance, this is the one time they need to exert it the most.

[cate1949]

I think the current Israeli administration's intransigence on the two state solution would make a state visit problematic - not to mention the security nightmare. 

[Limabeany]

Of all the things they maintain a diplomatic non interference stance, this is the one time they need to exert it the most.

They have had no such qualms with arab states, when you pick and choose you are discriminating not principled.