ANALYSIS – royal pain – Britain's Prince William, 41, also known as the Prince of Wales, recently released a joint statement of “distress” with his wife, Kate, about the war in Gaza.
They declared that “too many people had been killed” and called for more desperately needed humanitarian aid to be delivered.
The statement noted the Hamas terror attack on October 7, which provoked the Israeli offensive in Gaza and called for the release of Israeli hostages.
The royal couple also expressed their desire “to see an end to the fighting.”
The Daily Mail noted that: “Royal aides insisted that William's words should not be taken as a call for an immediate ceasefire or a comment on the issue of a ‘two state' solution, but as an instinctive reaction to monumental loss of life both as a human being and ‘as a father'.”
Many believe the Prince's well-choreographed statement on Gaza is a first step toward showing he is ready to be an outspoken and hands-on King, when his time comes, especially being delivered on the heels of King Charles' recent cancer diagnosis and treatment.
Some questioned whether the king even knew in advance of his son's statement. But it also got a response from Israel, which officially replied to the prince.
As the Daily Mail reported:
Israeli government spokesperson Eylon Levy said: ‘Israelis of course want to see an end to the fighting as soon as possible and that will be possible once the 134 hostages are released and once the Hamas terror army threatening to repeat the October 7 atrocities is dismantled.
‘We appreciate the Prince of Wales' call for Hamas to free the hostages. We also recall with gratitude his statement from October 11 condemning Hamas' terror attacks and reaffirming Israel's right of self defence against them.'
Others were more direct in responding to William's overtly political statement. Conservative British MPs were wary of publicly criticizing the Prince, but others questioned the royal's “highly political” message.
One former minister told MailOnline: “I think that it is very unwise for him to get involved in an issue like this. He is getting some seriously bad advice.”
“I can only assume that he has not been able to speak to the King, because he would certainly not have approved.”
Andrew Percy, vice-chairman of the parliamentary group on antisemitism, added, according to the Daily Mail : “The underlying principle of our constitutional monarchy is that members of the royal family do not engage in contentious political issues of the day on which there are divergent and strongly-held beliefs in this country.”
“Members of the royal family would do well to remember that.”
But things have been changing in recent years. Forbes reported that:
Members of the royal family have long refrained from making political statements or wading into international conflict, but both Prince William and his brother have made exceptions in recent years. Prince William and his wife, Kate Middleton, spoke out in support of Ukraine in 2022 following Russia's invasion of the country, and said they “stand with the President and all of Ukraine's people as they bravely fight for (the) future.”
And while the late Queen Elizabeth would steer clear of political issues, King Charles has also been strident in his approach to controversial topics such as the environment.
In December, at the Cop28 summit in Dubai, Charles warned that man is carrying out a “vast, frightening experiment” on the planet.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of American Liberty News.
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