‘We have a great concern for Jewish communities around the world’

One aspect of Haskel’s job that has been particularly challenging of late is maintaining good relations with the British government. Since the beginning of the war, Haskel told the JC, Israel has enjoyed “quite a close relationship” with the UK – but it hasn’t always been plain sailing.

“I think that obviously we have had some challenges, it would be a lie to say there weren't, but I think that obviously since the last election, the change, the political changes that were happening in the UK have dramatically affected internal politics that have actually affected the treatment towards Israel as well, and it's been challenging.”

Undoubtedly, relations have taken a turn for the worse. Since the election, the Labour government has implemented a partial arms export ban, halted trade talks with Israel and announced its intention to recognise a Palestinian state at this week’s UN General Assembly meeting.

For the last five years, Tzipi Hotovely has been Israel’s ambassador to the UK but, with her term ending this month, Haskel had been tipped as her replacement.

Dismissing those rumours, she said: “I think I've got my hands full enough.”

“I think that probably in the next couple of weeks, we're going to gather the committee, and we will choose an ambassador to the UK.

"As a strategic ally, we see the UK as one of our closest allies, with such a long-shared history between both of our people, as well as shared values and goals for the future.”

Haskel added: “I hope that we'll be able to bring someone who will be able to create a bit of an easier bridge or a closer bridge between both of our countries and our people.”

She also hit out at claims that Israel’s lack of spending on PR is at the heart of its image crisis internationally: “I don't think it's Israel's job to fight the jihadist propaganda that is being sent through Al-Jazeera.

“It is European countries who need to step up and understand that there is a real war of narratives, of identity, that is happening.

“They're all the same idea with different shapes or different costumes, either Hamas or ISIS, Hezbollah, Boko Haram, Al-Shabaab, the Houthis and the Shiite militias.

"It's the same idea with a bit of a different mask. And the conflict that we've been fighting for the last two years is not a territorial conflict.”

“This war and this conflict is a religious and a cultural one,” she adds. “This is a war on the values, on the way of life, on democracy, Western democracy, which believes in freedom of religion, women's rights, freedom for minorities and protecting LGBTQ communities.

"That doesn't exist in the Middle East. Israel is the only island with those values.”

And she expressed her disappointment that “Israel is becoming more and more an issue of left and right”. 

Instead, Haskel offered a different theory about the deteriorating Britain-Israel relationship: “I think that there are two major issues. The first one is the special status that the state of Israel holds, as a shelter, a guardian of Jewish people all around the world.

“We are experiencing, to be honest, an explosion of antisemitism around the world. And I have to say that, in England as well.”

This “explosion” hasn’t just been something that has affected Haskel on a professional level, but also a personal one.

“My cousin's daughter, who was sitting in school, was stabbed with a needle in the back of her head, just because she was Jewish, and no one did anything. My cousin has been homeschooling her ever since, because no one's really dealing with the problem. There is something of a silent acceptance.”

In her youth, Haskel spent a lot of time outside Israel, which informs her interest in international affairs. Born in Canada, she lived for a time in Australia and the US, and has family in France and the UK.

She explains that something that “really shaped” her was experiencing racism for the first time, not in Israel, but in France.

“We [the Israeli government] have a great concern for Jewish communities all around the world, and in particular in the UK as well. It's not just family members. I can share with you my own personal story.

"But many more people have been through much more difficult attacks, verbally, physically, entire neighbourhoods who are being completely harassed, synagogues, people who cannot walk with Jewish symbols, they need to hide their identity.”

While ruling out the ambassador job, Haskel said that she feels compelled to remain in Israeli politics. “I'm very happy with my current position. I've been an MK, and am now the deputy foreign minister, for the last 10 years. We have major political challenges that we're facing. And I intend to stay in Israeli politics.”

“I think that the challenges that we're facing internally and politically are far too great for me to step away from that. And I feel a full commitment and a true ideological mission to see how we can make this country greater, truly safe, prosperous from an economical perspective, and a little bit easier.

"It's been so tough on us Israelis here, especially during the last two years. In so many ways, I think we deserve a bit of relief. And I intend to do everything I can to give that to our people.”

“My hands are full between here and between home, and my little girls as well. I have three little babies, a four-year-old and twins who are three years old.”

As for her agenda in domestic politics, one policy that Haskel thinks desperately needs implementing is the Charedi draft bill. 

“I think the Charedim need to understand that it is time. They have to join in and find a way to help our society to be more secure because we need them.

"It's not a political question. It's a question about future generations and how secure they will be in our country.”

Additionally,  Haskel explains that, after the war, she wants to look at decriminalising the use of marijuana and making it easier for gay couples to marry in Israel.

At the moment, same-sex marriages performed abroad are recognised in Israel, but they cannot be legally certified if they take place domestically.

With Israel being “quite a conservative country”, Haskel hopes to find a pragmatic solution, “for example, people will be allowed to marry in an embassy here in Israel, which is considered a foreign territory. Different suggestions like that.”

As a former Likud member, and current New Hope MK, Haskel hasn’t decided which party she will join next. She expounds that she feels unable to “rejoin” Likud, as her own ideology no longer feels in line with that of the party. 

“I'm a very strong Zionist, very hard on security issues, and very hawkish. I'm a true classic liberal from an economic perspective, which is very rare in Israeli politics, to speak about reducing taxes and obliterating all of the crazy Israeli bureaucracy and regulations that in many cases don't make any sense.”