Man of the moment Mick Davis had this anecdote on the vagaries of Jewish leadership. The UJIA chairman went to a dinner party a few days after speaking in defence of Israel at the Trafalgar Square solidarity rally during its Gaza operation last year.

At the table he wondered whether 18-year-old Israeli army recruits were too young to cope with serving on the West Bank and whether the experience was morally corrosive. "Immediately, I was accused of being a self-hating Jew," he recalled. "I said to the person, 'How can you say that about me?' And she said, 'You should have been at the rally and heard the person who spoke!'"