Rosh Hashanah is a time to examine our conduct, acknowledge our mistakes and change course. That is a useful discipline for governments as well as individuals.
The measures against trade in goods and services from Israeli settlements, announced as part of a “reset” of Britain’s relationship with Israel and the Palestinians, should be judged by that standard. Their stated purpose is to preserve the possibility of a two-state solution – a legitimate objective but the question is whether it will really advance that aim or make it harder to achieve.
There are reasons to fear the latter. The announcement comes ahead of Israel’s election, when outside pressure may weaken advocates of a more accommodating approach. A blanket measure fails to distinguish between remote settlements whose expansion may complicate the territorial viability of a Palestinian state and those settlement blocks along the Green Line and Jewish neighbourhoods in Jerusalem that Israelis across the political spectrum regard as part of their state and would remain Israeli under any conceivable peace plan. Treating them all alike risks obscuring rather than clarifying the territorial compromises on which a settlement of the conflict supposedly depends.
Nor can ministers ignore the likely consequences at home. Jewish communal leaders have warned that sweeping measures could encourage a wider boycott of Israel and contribute to the stigmatisation of British Jews. Those concerns deserve serious consideration when anti-Israel propaganda and anti-Jewish hatred have become so closely intertwined. Just as important as the policy itself, therefore, are the words used to justify it.
Over the weekend, Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband published a video repeating “stories” he said he had heard that medicines were being blocked into Gaza, which Israel has categorically denied. When inflammatory anti-Israel rhetoric can so readily feed hostility towards British Jews, responsible ministers ought to distinguish substantiated allegations from unverified claims.
The timing, too, adds to the disquiet surrounding the decision. This announcement comes just days before the Jewish High Holy Days, the 25th anniversary of al-Qaeda’s attacks on America, atrocities that helped usher in an era of Islamist terrorism across the West, much of it directed against Jews, and the first anniversary of the murderous attack on Heaton Park Synagogue in Manchester.
Yet the Jewish response to adversity has never been despair. The High Holy Days invite us to take stock and consider what we can do to put matters right. We give thanks for the lives we have been given, for our families, our communities and the blessings that can be obscured by the anxieties of the moment.
Perspective matters, as for all the difficulties of the present, we live in an era of Jewish freedom and opportunity without precedent in two millennia.
We have a sovereign Jewish state, flourishing communities across the world and the ability to practise our faith, speak in our own name and shape our own future. None of this diminishes the threats we face, but it reminds us of what we have to protect.
That is the spirit in which we should meet this moment. British Jews will continue to disagree, including about Israel. Those differences need not prevent us from standing together against antisemitism or from insisting that our government listens to the concerns of the community it has a duty to protect.
And we are not alone in doing so. Friends across the political spectrum recognise the dangers of the government’s policy and the need for a more constructive approach. We should work with them, make our case with confidence and refuse to allow the present climate to narrow our ambitions for Jewish life in Britain.
But first, we will do what Jews have always done: we will gather in our synagogues and homes, celebrate the New Year with seriousness and joy, reflect on the year that has passed and resolve to make the next one better. We will remember those we have lost, give thanks for what we have and look towards the future with hope.
Whatever the challenges ahead, we will meet them together.
Shanah Tovah.
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