Israel’s election result will not improve relations with Britain, which are at their lowest ebb in history, former Israeli ambassador to the UK Mark Regev has told the JC.
Speaking on election night, Regev, who served as ambassador between 2016 and 2020, blamed decisions taken in London for the deterioration in the relationship.
A new Israeli government might enjoy a “short honeymoon”, he said, but would be unlikely to resolve the disagreements over Gaza and the West Bank.
“Never in history have UK-Israel relations been as bad as they are now,” he said.
Regev pointed to remarks made by Andy Burnham after becoming prime minister, saying he had been “very respectful” of his predecessor, Sir Keir Starmer, except over his approach to Israel.
“What was his one and only strong criticism? That the Keir Starmer government was not strong enough on Israel,” he said.
“That was the only thing he said publicly on foreign policy, the only criticism. I think he and [Foreign Secretary Ed] Miliband had decided, and it is a policy decision, that they want to be tougher on Israel than the others, and one can only think it is for internal political reasons.”
Regev – who served as Benjamin Netanyahu’s spokesperson to the international media before being appointed as an ambassador and is now independent from the government – said British policy towards Israel had traditionally occupied a position between Washington and Europe, but that London had since become “more extreme than Europe in their policies on Israel”.
While Burnham would be likely to congratulate a new Israeli prime minister, whoever that might be, and Miliband might express a wish to work together, Regev suggested the Israeli policies Britain has will not change.
“Miliband says the Israeli occupation of the West Bank is illegal, not that the settlements are illegal, but the presence of Israel in the West Bank.”
The British government’s stance, he said, “is really due to internal factors in Britain”, adding: “So what does it matter who the government in Israel is?”
Asked about actions by the Netanyahu government that had drawn criticism from mainstream British Jewry, such as Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli’s invitation to far-right figure Tommy Robinson to visit Israel, Regev said Israel was grappling with how to engage with Europe’s populist right.
“How should we look at the populist right in Britain? Should we have a relationship or should we not have a relationship? You can have different opinions,” he pondered.
Regev also rejected what he called an “artificial narrative” in Britain and within parts of the Jewish community about the impact of Israel’s actions on diaspora Jews.
“The idea that in the UK British Jews are suffering because of what Israel’s doing in Gaza or the West Bank, I think it is a misnomer. I think it is wrong,” he went on.
“It is a narrative that is counterfactual. First of all, we saw all these demonstrations against Israel on October 8, 2023, before we did anything. Second thing is, historically, when Hitler came to power in Germany in 1933, it caused a wave of antisemitism across the world.
“When antisemitism succeeds, all these antisemites come out of the closet and feel empowered… October 7 was a huge victory for antisemitism. They killed Jews like Jews haven’t been killed since before the Holocaust. That empowered all these people. It is not about Israel’s response, it is actually that a wave of antisemitism is a function of the success of antisemitism in killing Jews.”
Despite his criticism of the UK’s government, Regev added: “We have got many friends in Britain.”
Speaking later to an election night event hosted by the Israel Press Club, the German political foundation Konrad Adenauer Stiftung and the Israel Council on Foreign Relations, Regev praised Israel’s democracy and argued that European critics too often failed to acknowledge it.
“The values that Europe espouses are expressed in practice in the election that we have today in Israel. Many Israelis would think… there are many in Europe who ignore that fact and don’t give Israel credit.
“Sometimes we deserve to be criticised, but they don’t give Israel credit. In a very large geographic mass of land – from North Africa through to the Gulf – is there a single other country that reflects those values that Europe espouses so strongly, values that are not just in words, but today in deeds?”
With polls still open, Regev cautioned against predictions, but said that “for all sorts of reasons, the people who want to throw Netanyahu out have an advantage”.
He pointed to co-operation within the bloc seeking to replace Netanyahu to avoid losing surplus votes, and said it was “willing to do things they have never done before to get rid of Netanyahu”.
However, he suggested that Likud could benefit from high turnout in party strongholds such as Sderot and Be’er Sheva.
Germany’s ambassador to Israel, Alexander Graf Lambsdorff, also addressed the election event, contrasting the uncertainty of Israel’s vote with his experience in Russia.
Having recently been in the country, he said the election result there had been known “a year and a half in advance… you could read about it in the paper”.
“Coming to Israel, we have no clue who is going to win, and people are still voting, and that is democracy for you,” he said.
Lambsdorff warned that the “difficulties will start tomorrow”, as attention turned to forming a coalition.
“If you win, that’s when the real work starts,” he said.
Irrespective of the result, he added, Germany would remain ready to work with Israel.
“Whatever the incoming Israeli government is going to be, we will stand ready as Germany to engage with Israel on topics of partnership, where we have discussions of differing opinions, but we will work with Israel and we will stand by Israel as a friend also in the future.”
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