Welcoming Tzipi

The Rt Hon Dominic Raab, MP
First Secretary of State & Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs
House of Commons
London SW1A 0AA

16 June 2020

Dear First Secretary

Re: Israel’s Ambassador Designate

A campaign has recently been launched by a new group called “Naamod” which seeks to petition your office to reject the candidacy of Ms Tzipi Hotovely as Israel’s new ambassador to the UK.

Having been deeply involved with the Jewish community here for 6 decades I can say with confidence that this group and its supporters do not speak for the overwhelming majority of Jewish families in Britain.

A close look at the web links on Naamod’s petition site will reveal that most of the emotive positions and statements ascribed to her are either false or so out of context as to be deliberately misleading.

Instead, there are good reasons to enthusiastically welcome Ms Hotovely to the Court of St James. The child of refugees from the former Soviet Union, she is a source of pride to the immigrant community for her achievements in the law, media and politics.

Refreshingly she would be the first female ambassador appointed to this UK post. She is also the mother of three young children and brings family values to a role normally reserved for those with empty nests. She clearly would not have accepted her prime minister’s nomination without serious consideration of the upheaval of her husband’s job and the children’s schooling.

Ms Hotovely is also a woman of deep faith, for whom observance of the sabbath and festivals and turning the diplomatic residence into a kosher home is a special challenge which never troubled her mainly secular predecessors in this post.

Yes, the lady is a nationalist and a patriot who has defended Jewish history from the numerous attempts at its erasure, latterly by UNESCO. And when some may label her a ‘right-winger’ what that really means is that she is a realist. Someone who recognises that the real ‘occupation’ is by terror groups and leaders for whom corruption is a way of life and their people are simply pawns.

Like every other Israeli, Ms Hotovely lives and works daily alongside Arabs who make up 20% of Israel’s population. She would like to see the same harmony in the West Bank where Jewish settlers occupying just 3 percent of the territory provide good jobs and vital benefits to over 100,000 Arabs and their families.

All ambassadors have to be representative of the governments that send them. In this case Ms Hotovely has been sent by the new Netanyahu/Gantz coalition – one of the largest in Israel’s history. More significantly Mr Gantz has agreed that Ms Hotovely shall remain in post after he takes over as prime minister in 18 months’ time. This is therefore no extremist choice.

I hope you will therefore take the protestations of Naamod and their ilk with a pinch of salt, and extend a warm welcome to one of the youngest emissaries to the Court of St James – a woman of valour, of family values and deep faith.

Yours sincerely,

Zalmi Unsdorfer
Chairman, Likud-Herut UK

By Email: dominic.raab.mp@parliament.uk