Response to Shimon Cohen and Matthew Gould

In today's JC there is a letter from me in response to this column last week:

http://www.thejc.com/comment-and-debate/comment/72978/matthew-gould-righ...

My letter was shortened - here's the full version as submitted:

Shimon Cohen thinks that Matthew Gould’s recent comments on Israeli Channel 10 TV are a “straightforward statement of the obvious”. The truth is that they are plain wrong. Anyone who believes that “there has been an erosion of popular support” for Israel in Britain is monitoring only the BBC, the Guardian and the London chattering classes. Opinion polls tell us that the overwhelming majority in Britain is not interested in the Middle East and that of those people that are, significantly more blame Israel’s enemies for the continuing stalemate than blame Israel (perhaps they are mindful that every day Israel faces the same forces bent on her destruction as those who struck in London on 7th July 2005).

Ambassador Gould also claimed – bizarrely – that MPs “in the middle” have become more hostile to Israel . Again he is wrong. Thanks to new MPs such as Robert Halfon, Bob Blackman, Mike Freer, Nick Boles and Louise Mensch (who will be greatly missed), the extent of understanding in the House of Commons of the challenges that Israel faces is higher than it has been for years.

Sincerely
Jonathan Hoffman
Co-Vice Chair Zionist Federation