Wednesday briefing: Inside sweeping UK sanctions on trade with Israeli settlements

In today’s newsletter: Ed Miliband has announced the strongest statement on Israel’s actions ever issued by the the UK government, but will it make a meaningful difference to Palestinians?Good morning. For almost half a century, British governments have condemned illegal Israeli settlements, acknowledging they represent an obstacle to peace and threaten the prospect of a two-state solution. And yet no government has ever compelled Israel to stop its expansion.Ed Miliband’s statement in the House of Commons yesterday was an attempt to change that. In a powerful and emotive speech, the foreign secretary recounted childhood memories of picking oranges on his grandmother’s kibbutz, accused Israeli “terrorists” of ethnic cleansing in the West Bank and announced a series of new measures intended