Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni revealed this week that her parents had met under rather unusual circumstances: they were robbing a British train at the time.

Livni’s parents Eitan and Sarah were both activists in the hardline Irgun militia in Mandate Palestine when they became acquainted while mounting a raid on a British train.

They were arrested and served time in different prisons, but the spark of romance had been lit.

Speaking to a Queen’s birthday reception hosted by British ambassador Tom Phillips, she thanked the British.  Were it not for the Mandate, she said, she might never have been born.