by Robin Shepherd
Don’t look now, but Israel has a new friend in Great Britain. Hitherto the most anti-Israeli political party in the country, the Liberal Democrats appear to have performed a volte face with Nick Clegg — the party’s leader and Deputy Prime Minister to David Cameron — saying that his party had got it wrong on Israel.
“I’m not certain that we have always made ourselves clearly heard on this, so let me say it again now: Israel’s right to thrive in peace and security is non-negotiable for Liberal Democrats,” Britain’s Jewish Chronicle quoted Clegg as saying. “No other country so continually has its right to exist called into question as does Israel, and that is intolerable… There can be no solution to the problems of the Middle East that does not include a full and proper recognition of Israel by all parties to the conflict.”
True, these remarks were made at a lunch organised by the Liberal Democrat Friends of Israel. We still need, therefore, to hear Clegg talking this way to a wider audience. Nonetheless, his comments mark a stunning departure from what we are used to. His party’s hostility to Israel in recent years has known no bounds with one senior member, Jenny Tonge, having even gone on record as offering a rationalisation for suicide bombings. The fact that he has not only effectively apologised for his party’s previous stance but identified the global deligitimisation campaign as “intolerable” is something to behold and may be a sign that the message many of us have been trying to deliver may finally be getting through.
Importantly, he also pledged his party’s support for changes to Britain’s universal jurisdiction laws which have been used by anti-Israel groups to indict Israeli officials. As a result, several high profile Israelis, including opposition leader Tzipi Livni, have cancelled trips to Britain in recent years raising questions about Britain’s ability to conduct a meaningful relationship with the Jewish state. Foreign Secretary William Hague reiterated last week the government’s intention to amend the law so that indictments can only be made by the attorney general and not by ordinary citizens requesting warrants of their own through the courts.
“The issuing of such warrants should be a matter for one of central government’s senior law officers, not for local magistrates,” Clegg was quoted as saying.
This is significant because there have been concerns the Liberal Democrats may attempt to block changes to the universal jurisdiction law. Given Clegg’s remarks that now looks unlikely.
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