Labour picks a side on Gaza — and cheers the party faithful

LIVERPOOL, England — One of the most stinging criticisms thrown at Andy Burnham is that he is a people-pleaser who hates to pick a side. But on one of the most contentious issues facing Labour, he has done just that. Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband made the shift clear in his speech to Labour’s annual conference in Liverpool this week — directly telling internal critics who had accused the governing party of failing to take strong enough action to defend Palestinians: “You were right.” Many of those internal critics now hope a shift in Labour policy — imposing trade sanctions on illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank — will go some way to repair electoral damage done to the center-left party in recent years.