Britain’s New Prime Minister Has a Good Record When It Comes to Israel and the Jews

Oct. 27 2022

In 1874, Benjamin Disraeli—whose Jewish father baptized him at age twelve after a falling out with the synagogue elders—became the first British prime minister not born a Christian. On Monday, Rishi Sunak, a Hindu, became the first actual non-Christian to hold the premiership. Kate Maltby compares the two Conservative politicians, while Georgia Gilholy examines what Sunak’s appointment means for British Jewry:

During his first leadership campaign this summer, Sunak told the Conservative Friends of Israel hustings that he recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s “historic capital.” He agreed with [his predecessor] Liz Truss there was a “very strong case” for relocating the British embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. The Richmond MP also told the audience that he was committed to the construction of the controversial Westminster Holocaust memorial in Victoria Embankment Gardens, and vowed to get restrictions on BDS on the legislative agenda.

In an August interview, . . . he described Israel as a “shining beacon of hope.” He also promised to increase spending on Jewish security organizations such as the Community Security Trust, [a Jewish nonprofit that plays a crucial role in protecting synagogues and other Jewish institutions], expressing how he felt “horrified” by the need for security outside Jewish religious schools.

Mr. Sunak has also spoken up about the threat of Iran, warning in August that the attack on Salman Rushdie must function as a “wake-up call for the West,” and urged “maximum-pressure” sanctions on the Islamic Republic before considering any plans to revive the 2015 nuclear agreement.

Read more at Jewish Chronicle

More about: Anglo-Jewry, Benjamin Disraeli, Europe and Israel, United Kingdom

Oil Is Iran’s Weak Spot. Israel Should Exploit It

Israel will likely respond directly against Iran after yesterday’s attack, and has made known that it will calibrate its retaliation based not on the extent of the damage, but on the scale of the attack. The specifics are anyone’s guess, but Edward Luttwak has a suggestion, put forth in an article published just hours before the missile barrage: cut off Tehran’s ability to send money and arms to Shiite Arab militias.

In practice, most of this cash comes from a single source: oil. . . . In other words, the flow of dollars that sustains Israel’s enemies, and which has caused so much trouble to Western interests from the Syrian desert to the Red Sea, emanates almost entirely from the oil loaded onto tankers at the export terminal on Khark Island, a speck of land about 25 kilometers off Iran’s southern coast. Benjamin Netanyahu warned in his recent speech to the UN General Assembly that Israel’s “long arm” can reach them too. Indeed, Khark’s location in the Persian Gulf is relatively close. At 1,516 kilometers from Israel’s main airbase, it’s far closer than the Houthis’ main oil import terminal at Hodeida in Yemen—a place that was destroyed by Israeli jets in July, and attacked again [on Sunday].

Read more at UnHerd

More about: Iran, Israeli Security, Oil