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

Israel's Youngest Lawmaker

You don't need fluency in Hebrew to marvel at this youngest member of Israel's parliament and to wonder where she will be 20 years from now.  Speaking in Hebron, birthplace of David's kingdom, Likud's Tzippy Hotovely lambasts the leftists who are frightened of their own shadow over the homeland and haven't the guts to stamp their names on the title deed.

Our Tzipi is better than Kadima's

This is Likud MK Tzipi Hotovely's letter in response to Mr Obama's "67 Borders" speech

Jerusalem, 16^th of Iyar, 5771
May 20th, 2011

To my dear friends,

I have always had a great affinity for America. I lived there, when I did my national service for Israel as an emissary in Atlanta, not so long ago. As a girl in school in Rechovot, at a young age, I learned that America was the first country to recognize the nascent State of Israel's independence. So tonight is a sad night... a very sad night, for myself, for the Jewish people, and for our country.

Before another day dawns in Israel, I am obligated to correct a few inaccuracies in the American President's speech. Then I want to tell you what WE are going to do about them.

President Obama stated:  "What America and the international community can do is to state frankly what everybody knows. A lasting peace will involve two states for two peoples". I am obligated to correct the President. Not everybody knows, recognizes, or believes in two states. This is not the platform of the Likud, That is not my belief, and as a legislator in Jerusalem, I will do all that is in my power to ensure the future of the Jewish State lies from the Mediterranean to the Jordan. 

Then there was the endorsement of a return to the 1967 lines, with the quick and ambiguous allusion to the white elephant in the room, namely Jerusalem. Of course, in 1967, Jerusalem was divided and an endorsement for these borders is a de facto endorsement of dividing the eternal capital of the Jewish people. This means no Western Wall, No temple Mount, No old city. This means rending the heart of Israel from our people. This is not a sustainable policy and this is not acceptable, for unless Washington DC is negotiable than neither is Jerusalem! Yet letters, articles, and voicing discontent are sometimes not enough.

We must speak through action. We must use our actions to communicate that Jerusalem is indivisible and that no man, even the President of the United States, can put a boundary on the Jewish People's connection to its capital. This message must be communicated to our Prime Minister, so that he may know that he needs not bow to pressure, for his nation is behind him. This message must be sounded in capitals throughout the world, by citizens of all nations. For this reason, next Friday May 27th, 2011, I will be conducting a tour of unified liberated Jerusalem for the Likud Anglo movement (Details here). Likud Anglos brings together Jews of all nationalities, and together we will defend our claim.

Lastly Mr. Obama outlined how we need to make some important choices, between hate and hope, and between the shackles of the past and the promise of the future, and here I agree with him. We must recognize the hatred that is fomented against us and we must hope that if we trust in our rock and our redeemer, our morals and our convictions, that the Jewish State will persevere. We must choose to destroy the shackles of failed diplomatic tracts, and through that we can create a more secure future for our state. Lastly, no matter where you are from, we must choose to stand together, as Jews, united for the only state that we have, the State of Israel.

Long before President Obama informed us that this time of choices was upon us, King David wrote the words which every Jewish groom recites on his wedding day: "If I forsake thee oh Jerusalem, let my right hand lose its cunning". I invite you all to join me next Friday and to make that choice, to stand with Israel, and to stand with a unified Jerusalem.

Shabbat Shalom,

Tzipi Hotovely
Member of the 18th Knesset
Chairperson, Committee on the Status of Women