IT HAD TO HAPPEN sooner or later, didn’t it? In successive weeks at the Scottish Parliament, we’ve had our dose of Israel-bashing. The first came in the form of a sanctions debate tabled by the Greens, and the second in response to my suggesting, in a speech on expectations for the UK Government’s budget, that we see more defence spending! How dare I.
As regards the former, we know, of course, that the sanctions introduced by Ed Miliband were largely virtue signalling and will have little effect on a technological and pharmaceutical powerhouse such as Israel. They just had to get it out there, though, didn’t they? The result is the downgrading of the consulate in Jerusalem. I can only hope that when the politicians fall out with each other, the intelligence operatives just ignore them. That brings me back to defence.
Of course, the SNP does not want to see more spending on defence because there is no Barnett consequential payment in that for the Scottish Government. It would rather more was spent on health and education to create a Holyrood windfall, despite more money being spent each year with no demonstrably positive outcomes.
We need to up our game on defence, and I argued that the £500 million-plus being earmarked to reboot the Erasmus programme should be redirected to defence. I even gave a name to this new defence strategy: Operation Survival. The trigger was my mentioning that I’d borrowed that framing from Benjamin Netanyahu.
the IMF forecasts that Israel’s economy will grow by 4.5 per cent in 2026, compared with 1.3 per cent for the UK
Some may not like his politics, but Israelis like the way he runs their economy and manages his complex democratic coalition. That economy funds their defence and the technological supremacy we can all learn from. Trade between Israel and the UK benefits both economies, but the IMF forecasts that Israel’s economy will grow by 4.5 per cent in 2026, compared with 1.3 per cent for the UK.
The UK can also learn much from Israel’s multi-layered defence, with its technological innovation pipelines and close integration between specialised and conventional forces. There is also much we can appreciate in its crucial Iron Dome. Of course, I was attacked by the Nats for mentioning “a war criminal” in the chamber – it’s okay to talk about Sinn Féin and Hamas though!
Parliamentary defence reviews note that the UK has gaps in domestic missile defence, prompting calls for a similar domestic shield against advanced drone and missile threats. We need something similar now; this spending should be non-negotiable, and we should be working with the Israeli Government to achieve this.
I didn’t speak in the sanctions debate. The expected verbal assassination was too close to my heart. I am a Christian woman married to a Jewish man for some 33 years. The interfaith path has not always been smooth, but we’ve navigated it. I hear much talk of multiculturalism and integration in Holyrood, though I’m certain most have no clue what this actually involves in practice. It often sounds like something easy to achieve. Take it from me, it is not. The statistics on interfaith marriage speak for themselves.
In these 30-odd years of my interfaith life, I’ve touched every bit of Israel, visiting Israeli relatives. From the Golan on the Lebanese border to crossing into Jordan in the south. From floating in the Dead Sea to swimming in the Galilee. From the River Jordan to climbing Masada at sunrise, as well as eating amazing shakshuka in Jaffa, in Tel Aviv. I also had the best food I’ve ever tasted in a small restaurant in Nazareth called the Diana. I love the Middle East.
I’ve followed the peace process since the 1990s, visiting the Dome of the Rock, and entering the West Bank on Christmas Eve. I grieved when Rabin was assassinated and the peace process fell apart. When conflict has broken out, as it often does suddenly, I’ve waited anxiously with my husband to hear who has been called up by the Israel Defence Forces. In October last year, there were two cousins who got that call, one heading to Gaza to take on Hamas, and one to the Lebanese border to face Hezbollah. I lamented what I knew lay ahead.
I have become a Zionist, and I am proud of it
So don’t think that anti-Israel sentiment in our Parliaments, and from political parties generally, doesn’t affect Jewish people living here. It does, and it has consequences. Israel is a small country which has used technology and the hard work of its people to make use of every part of its land. It has realised ambitions some nations could only dream of.
In recent times, however, it has seen an influx of hundreds of thousands of Jews exercising their right to return, many from Ukraine, and it is unlikely they will ever return there. As more Jews feel marginalised and exercise this right, ironically, the less land there will ultimately be for a two-state solution.
In conclusion, I have become a Zionist, and I am proud of it.
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My grandmother was killed by the Nazis because she was Jewish. The Holocaust was the result of centuries of anti-Semitism, Jewish persecution and pogroms. This is continuing today, with renewed vigour. Which makes the necessity of a Jewish homeland – Israel – all the more vital now. I am a Zionist with you. But even without my personal history I would stand up for Israel as part of standing up for Enlightenment, democratic values against the sectarian, violently anti-western, anti-democratic values of Islamism.