The Anglo-Israel Association 2017 / 2018
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2017 / 2018 THE ANGLO-ISRAEL ASSOCIATION 1 WHO WE ARE CONTENTS FOUNDER COUNCIL The Late Brigadier General Lady Sainsbury (Chairman) Sir Wyndham Deedes, CMG, DSO Lady Anderson Sir Andrew Burns, KCMG HON PRESIDENT The Earl of Balfour HE The Ambassador of Israel Mrs E Corob 5 Chairman’s Message Dame Vivien Duffield, DBE HON VICE-PRESIDENTS Mr JM Greenwood 6 Beyond the Balfour Declaration Mr M Green Mrs M Park Mrs L Hochhauser The Marquess of Reading 8 Beverley-Jane Stewart Paints ‘Balfour Accomplished’ Mr J Marshall Mr D Sumberg Mr GR Pinto The Rt Hon The Lord Woolf, PC 10 The Obstacles to the Achievement of a Two-State Solution Lady Sainsbury Mr A Yablon 20 The Phony Peace Between the Labour Party and Jews EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE (TRUSTEES) DINNER COMMITTEE The Lord Bew (Chairman) Lady Baker (Co Chairman) 22 ‘Distinguished Men of the Left Echo the Language of Holocaust Denial’ Mrs J Atkin Mr A Reeve (Co Chairman) Lady Baker Ms E Emanuel 24 Failure to Confront Anti-Semitism Mr R Bolchover (Co-Deputy Chairman) Ms L Diamond Miss B Dingle Mrs F Saunderson 26 The 8th Ambassadors Roundtable on Cyber-Security Professor D Hochhauser (Co-Deputy Chairman) Mr B Streather Mr D Kessler Mrs E Tarling 33 Clergy Visit to Israel Mr H Lewis FCA (Hon Treasurer) Ms O Polizzi EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR 34 AIA Events: Mr A Reeve Mrs Ruth Saunders Worth Dying for: The Power and Politics of Flags Mr B Streather 100th Anniversary of the Balfour Declaration Celebration Mrs E Tarling AIA Colloquium Mr T Vince 36 The World Turned Upside Down 38 10 Of the Most Spectacular Desert Hikes in Israel FOLLOW THE ANGLO-ISRAEL ASSOCIATION ON FACEBOOK AND TWITTER AT: 44 Letter from a Forgotten Jew 49 Jerusalem at 50: A 2000 Year Old Dream facebook.com/AngloIsraelAssoc/ @AngloIsraelAssn 50 Palestinian Authority Text Books Teach Pupils to be Expendable ‘Martyrs’ 52 Sanhedrin Trail 54 Israel’s Radical New Approach to Psychological First Aid ANGLO-ISRAEL ASSOCIATION PO Box 47819, London NW11 7WD 56 Israeli Innovations T: 020 8458 1284 F. 020 8458 3484 E: [email protected] www.angloisraelassociation.com 68 A 21st Century Trilateral Relationship? Registered Charity No. 313523 71 A Bridge Between the UK and Israeli Business Environment The articles in this magazine reflect the views of the authors and not necessarily those of the Anglo- 72 AIA Educational Trusts Israel Association. If you have a comment on any of the articles or on the magazine in general, we would be pleased to hear from you. Letters or emails should be addressed to the Editor and sent to 76 Soup the Ultimate Comfort Food email: [email protected] or The AIA, PO Box 47819, London NW11 7WD Editorial Team: Ruth Saunders (editor), Linda Diamond, Grace Reginiano Cover: The Jewish & Arab Women’s March for Peace Design by WEARECAPRI.com Chairman’s message In 1917 the leaders of the British Labour movement supported the Balfour declaration. Interestingly, both Balfour and Churchill, who in 1922 supported Balfour, had been schooled in Irish politics, that is ethno religious national sectarianism involving rights on both sides. But choices have to be made. The Balfour Declaration saved hundreds of thousands of Jewish lives. This is why we celebrate it this year. ASSISTING BY DONATING But we do not celebrate it in any spirit of complacency. We know that however successful Israel is, it has many enemies. TO WELLBEING AND We also know that antisemitism is on the march again, as is a glib PREVENTATIVE MEDICINE CAUSES moralism which does not seek to understand life in a tough neighbourhood where the choices are often between the lesser of two evils. The work of this Association is more important than ever because it WISH THIS FUNCTION keeps a focus on the civilised arts and sciences which link Israel to the U.K. SUCCESS At a time when anti-Jewish feeling is evident in the most surprising FOR NOW AND IN THE FUTURE places in the UK, we have to maintain the traditions of the AIA. This is above all a moderate but firm insistence on the vital importance of a warm UK-Israel friendship. But in the struggle which lies ahead we cannot afford to take anything for granted. We need your help. Lord Bew Chairman of the Executive Committee 5 an expression of support – the Government looking with during the second world war changed Jewish attitudes favour on a Jewish homeland – sent in a letter to Lord towards Britain from gratitude to hostility as they saw the Rothschild. And it could easily have got lost at any time. escape route for the Jews being clanged shut. It was only in 1920 at San Remo and two years later in And after the war, when boat loads of refugees were Geneva when the League of Nations, gave the Mandate callously turned away, hatred of the British by the Jews for Palestine to Britain and furthermore Mandated it to of Palestine reached a climax in acts of violence and provide the Jewish home there. And all 51 Nations voted terrorism. Despite reaching a nadir in Anglo-British for it, with none against. relations in the 1940s it remains the case that Israel owes an enormous debt to Britain for what it offered them The League of Nations spoke of a Jewish Nation for the earlier, in 1917, in 1920 and 1922. first time and of ‘reconstituting’ it in Palestine. Balfour had only spoken of ‘establishing‘ it, yet here it wrote of And Britain too has a lot to be grateful for. It should ‘reconstituting’ its ancient rights. celebrate the fact that Britain provided the foundations of a democratic State in a part of the world where democracy It was this basis, in International law, that gave legitimacy is in very short supply. to the Zionists claim to a Palestinian home; and it was this agreement that was accepted in full by the UN in 1947. I like to think that despite the problems that have to be overcome if we are to see a just and peaceful resolution of Balfour and his Prime Minister, Lloyd George had Israel’s differences with the Palestinians, Britain should continued to make their presence felt in San Remo and celebrate the fact that it was instrumental in providing the in Geneva; so I believe that Britain should be proud, not foundation of this democracy where religious and ethnic only for the Balfour Declaration but also for pursuing it differences are fully tolerated. The only Middle East State so assiduously in San Remo and at the League of Nations. where the number of Christians has risen, where gay And here’s the surprise. The wider Arab leadership were parades are a feature of life, where indeed the British at first very favourably disposed to the Jewish influx, Ambassador to Israel was able to mount a float in a recent BEYONDmodest though it was, into what they regarded as a small gay parade in Tel Aviv, where 17 members of the Knesset, neglected corner of Arabia. They had welcomed the Jews a supreme court judge, and many academics , doctors as their brethren, there was a written agreement between and professionals of all sorts are all Arab. To say nothing BEYOND THE BEYOND BALFOUR DECLARATION Prince Faisal and Chaim Weizmann saying as much and of its leading place in science, technology and medicine, the daily newspaper in Mecca wrote of the two branches in the arts and in commerce. It is a country with which land being given by a Western of the Semitic family, Arab and Jew who understood each Britain shares intelligence on threats to security, and in Power, whose land it wasn’t theirs other. which trade links are increasingly important as we move to give, to someone else. It was only when the Grand Sharif Hussein and his son into the post-Brexit era. Seemingly incompatible aims that Prince Faisal in Mecca realized that they had been duped It is fascinating now that a hundred years ago it was a the wording of the Declaration tried by the British and French that all that sweetness and light British Government that opened a door for a Jewish to overcome by offering a home melted away. Hussein had been led to believe that if he homeland in Palestine, and now, a century later, after for the Jews with the proviso that and his tribes revolted against the Turks he would be years of conflict with the Arab world at large, we are nothing shall be done to prejudice rewarded with control of a vast kingdom in the whole of beginning to see the more pragmatic Arab States, Saudi the religious and civil rights of Arabia after the war. Arabia, Egypt, The Gulf States, beginning to recognize a the indigenous population. A But when they heard that their land had been carved up Jewish Israel. The Arab Peace Initiative is being offered hopelessly optimistic idea and, at by the French and British in their Mandates they knew providing there is a meaningful peace between the Israelis the time little thought was given they had been cheated. First the Sykes-Picot agreement and Palestinians. to how one group, the Jews, were and then at San Remo and the League of Nations, the The enormous advantages of a peace deal to both of them supposed to protect the rights of Allies agreed that they could not trust the Arabs to rule and to the wider Arab world are there for all to see. Mr. another group, the Arabs, who themselves in such a strategically important part of Abbas has to be able to bring himself to recognize what were immediately trying to kill the world.