Ambassador
“When they think about concerns in the region, they are as concerned about many of same the things as we are. It’s an opportunity for Israel, but also a challenge for the other countries in the region to start to build and move together. There are a number of governments that are admiring and appreciative of Israel and co-operate with Israel on the quiet. It’s a challenge for us to build on those opportunities.”
Also, surprisingly to some, there are still opportunities being realised with America, despite the Obama initiatives. He says these things have to be “nurtured”. “All initiatives have to be nurtured. The depth of the relations with the US is incomparable with anything else. The United States is still supplying Israel with all the latest technology.”
In Britain, he says that relations with the Labour Party need to be closely looked at: “I think the Labour Party in Israel and the British Labour Party are going to have to work to re-establish its [previous] good relations. They have so much in common — the belief in freedom of speech, the position of women and of minorities, attitudes to homosexuals. Progressive support for Israel should not be that complicated. If you think of the progressive values that are most important to Israel, they are the same progressive values.”
Which brought us to talk about Israel and Palestine. “There is a growing awareness that with all these upheavals we have to be more realistic about an Israeli-Palestinian accommodation — as people realise that the same terrorist groups across our borders threaten them as they threaten us.” He thinks that more now understand that, “Israel’s needs for a genuine, robust security have to be met before you can think of withdrawal. “Now, people don’t have to see things just in the Israeli context. They can look back in other contexts, too, to see what happened when a vacuum is created.”
If there is a vacuum anywhere, it is in the not too active fight against antisemitism. Nevertheless, there are positive developments — if not in much of Europe, but surprisingly it appears to be happening in Egypt. During Ramadan, Egyptian TV, normally highly antisemitic, adopted a changed tone. “This time, there was a story about a young Egyptian Jewess who had a Zionist brother. She goes to live in France and in the story, people wished she had stayed in Israel. A very significant statement.”
He would like such significant statements on the Continent, although he stresses that “Britain is not like other Europeans, not like
I do believe that having faith in your life can build bridges