“If you asked her about Sinai, she would probably think it was the plural for sinus,” Jonathan Aitken once quipped to illustrate Margaret Thatcher’s supposed lack of knowledge about the Middle East.

In fact, Thatcher did take an interest in the Middle East and there was extensive British involvement in the region during her time, albeit some of it highly contentious. Aitken himself, as one of her ministers, was heavily involved in arms sales to Saudi Arabia worth tens of billions of pounds, in particular the controversial, and lucrative, Al Yamamah project. But her government was also one of the first in the West to establish relations with the PLO and encouraged talks between the Palestinians and the Israelis.

The incursion of Theresa May, who is being spinned by her supporters as the new Thatcher, into the politics of the Middle East has also been highly controversial while showing little by way of statesmanship. She criticised John Kerry’s condemnation of the expansion of the settlements in occupied territories by the Israeli government – just after Britain had voted against the same expansion in the United Nations. The Obama administration pointed out in a measured but cutting response that what the US Secretary of State had said was entirely in line with long-held British policy.

Thousands march in protest over Theresa May's Donald Trump invitation

The sniping at Kerry, a staunch ally of Britain while in office, was an attempt by Downing Street to gain approval from the incoming president Donald Trump and his coterie. The Trump team hardly acknowledged this act of genuflection, but the blatant nature of it was widely viewed with amusement, including among the UK’s European allies.

The attempts to please Trump continued with the British government refusing to send senior officials to a peace conference on Israel and Palestine held in Paris. This came after the new US president’s transition team told the French government they did not want the meeting to go ahead. London then went on to block the European Union foreign affairs council from adopting the closing statement of the conference, attended by around 70 counties, which urged both sides to take steps to avert further violence and strive for a two state solution.

May will meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tomorrow in London, the first meeting between the two leaders. Much of the talk will be about trade, with Britain seeking new partners after Brexit – the same need that took her to meet Recep Tayyep Erdogan in Turkey last week. The Middle East peace process will also be on the agenda. “I would expect the Prime Minister to set out the government’s position that we think continued increases in settlement activity undermines trust,” said a Downing Street spokeswoman. This, in fact, was the point Kerry was making forcefully.

Theresa May in quotes Show all 10 1 /10 Theresa May in quotes Theresa May in quotes On being described by the former chancellor Ken Clarke as “a bloody difficult woman”: “Politics could do with some Bloody Difficult Women actually” Rex Features Theresa May in quotes On keeping secrets even from her husband: “There are some things I am told that I am not able to confide in anybody” Rex Features Theresa May in quotes On the relentless focus on her appearance during a speech at the Women in the World summit: "I like clothes and I like shoes. One of the challenges for women in the workplace is to be ourselves and I say you can be clever and like clothes. You can have a career and like clothes” Getty Images Theresa May in quotes On comparisons to Margaret Thatcher: “I think there can only ever be one Margaret Thatcher. I’m not someone who naturally looks to role models. I’ve always, whatever job it is I’m doing at the time, given it my best shot. I put my all into it, and try to do the best job I can” AFP/Getty Images Theresa May in quotes On her rebelliousness, or lack of, as a teenager: “I probably was Goody Two Shoes at school” Getty Images Theresa May in quotes On being replaced as chairman by Lord Saatchi and Liam Fox in 2003: “Yes, it takes two men to step into the shoes of one woman” AFP/Getty Images Theresa May in quotes What Theresa May said when she was asked about her political ambitions during an interview with Miriam González Durántez, a lawyer married to Nick Clegg, in December: MD: "My very last question is: that little girl who is somewhere there, is she dreaming of becoming the next British Prime Minister?" TM: "She’s dreaming of carrying on doing a good job in the Home Office" Getty Images Theresa May in quotes On not being able to have children: “I like to keep my personal life personal. We couldn’t have children, we dealt with it and moved on. I hope nobody would think that mattered; I can still empathise, understand people and care about fairness and opportunity” Getty Images Theresa May in quotes On whether she can deliver the mandate of the EU referendum: “I think for party members and indeed for others, I would say look at my record. I think they can see that I’m somebody who gets on with the job, but I’m also somebody who says it as I see it and actually delivers on what I say” Getty Images Theresa May in quotes On the equally relentless obsession with her shoes: “As a woman I know you can be very serious about something and very soberly dressed add a little bit of interest with footwear. I always tell women ‘you have to be yourself, don’t assume you have to fit into a stereotype’ and if your personality is shown through your clothes or shoes, so be it” Getty Images

But just how much notice does Netanyahu need to take of May’s views on settlements or any other strictures about Israel’s policies towards the Palestinians? He will know, as did President Erdogan, that any stance by her on the moral high ground is undermined by the fact that post-Brexit Britain will be desperate for business and unlikely to rush to punitive measures such as economic sanctions against his country.

Netanyahu will be visiting Trump in Washington next week. The new US president has made appointments and pronouncements in which the Israeli Prime Minister’s right-wing Likud coalition has taken satisfaction, such as promising to move the embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem – something previous US presidents have avoided doing – and sending as ambassador his former bankruptcy lawyer, who has described American Jews who oppose settlements in the West Bank as being worse than Nazi collaborators.

Yet changes have already begun to appear in Trump’s foreign policy. Having, for example, threatened to pull out troops from South Korea and Japan, he has now pledged to ensure that the alliances remain “stronger than ever”. On Israel and Palestine, the White House has warned the Netanyahu government against making “unilateral” announcements on building more settlements. The two-state solution, removed from the Republican party election platform at the behest of the Trump team, is now, say his officials, back on the agenda.

“I think it is designed to chill some of the exuberance of those on the Israeli Right who think they have a blank cheque,” Dennis Ross, a veteran senior diplomat on the Middle East in Bush, Clinton and Obama administrations, told The Jerusalem Post.

“I think that exuberance got their (the Trump team’s) attention. I just don’t think they want any announcements that will surprise them and they’re still in the process of formulating what their policy is going to be. It sounds like they want to convey a pretty blunt message.”