Annexation: We Dare Not Fail

In his imperious and widely-condemned putdown of Israel on its 72nd independence day, Londoner Sir Mick Davis wrote: “…Palestinian dysfunction, corruption and intransigence were previously an obstacle for Israel to overcome, not a set of values to emulate”.

That inane statement came to mind on Yom Yerushalayim during a Zoom conference I was chairing with special guest Ambassador Dore Gold.We were talking about how there was no plan to take back Jerusalem at the start of the Six Day War. The Jordanians were supposed to stay out of the war and only started shelling the Jewish suburbs of West Jerusalem after Egypt’s president Nasser lied to King Hussein about heavy Israeli losses. Under fire and on a strong legal footing of self-defence, Israel seized the opportunity which in little more than a day led to the restoration of Jerusalem and the Temple Mount to our people.

Another important opportunity seized was in 1973 when General Ariel Sharon went rogue and launched his unit over the Suez Canal to encircle the Egyptian Third Army and bring the Yom Kippur War to a swift end.

The annals of IDF campaigns are replete with stories of improvisation, seizing opportunities in the field and striking while the iron is hot.

The Trump peace plan is today’s opportunity. And we dare not let it pass.
Just as our children today cannot conceive of a Jewish world without Jerusalem and the Kotel, future generations will blame today’s leaders for not seizing the once-in-a-lifetime gifts of President Donald Trump in securing the Jordan Valley and reasserting Jewish sovereignty over our tribal heartlands of Judea and Samaria.

Israel’s most eloquent foreign minister was Abba Eban who famously referred to the 1967 ceasefire lines as ‘Auschwitz Borders’. He also authored that famous line: the Arabs never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity.

Which is why Mick Davis’s statement came to mind.

If there is even a grain of substance in his suggestion that Israelis are emulating the Palestinians – please let it not be the missing of opportunities.

Trump's Truth to Power on Jerusalem

My Statement re Trump's declaration on Jerusalem

Likud-Herut UK applauds United States President Donald J Trump for his statement yesterday, recognising Jerusalem as the capital of the state of Israel.

Jerusalem has been the Jewish capital for 3,000 years and the seat of Israel’s government since 1949.

In making his bold and brave statement, President Trump spoke ‘truth to power’ in a very real sense. The truth being what is enshrined in the bible that unites the world’s three main faiths. The power being what has until now held that truth as a hostage to terror and oil interests.

We call upon our prime minister Theresa May to follow the US president’s lead and speak the same truth to the power of her own Foreign Office here in London, which has such an abysmal record on anything that concerns the Jewish state. Truth to the power of her Labour opposition, whose party has disgraced itself in the UK Jewish community and whose leader has referred to the likes of Hamas as friends.

In truth Britain owes Israel far more than just a recognition of its Jerusalem capital. It owes Israel the Kingdom of Jordan which was stolen out of its League of Nations mandate. Britain is therefore the very last nation in a position to complain about Jewish ‘occupation’ of the West Bank of the Jordan river.

So, we urge Prime Minister May to follow President Trump’s lead. To atone for that historic betrayal. To show that Britain will not be cowed by threats of terrorism – either conventional or economic. To show real daylight on this issue between her party and that of Jeremy Corbyn. And to take her Foreign Office in a new direction which might finally facilitate the very long-outstanding royal visit to the region’s only democracy – the state of Israel.

Finally we lament any death or injury caused in the rioting which has been fomented by Palestinian groups over this announcement. It is a great pity such outrage could not have been mobilised over the loss of 500,000 lives in Syria.

Zalmi Unsdorfer

Chairman - LHUK