Israel’s enemies are Britain’s, too

Seventy-eight years after its founding, Israel still cannot take its existence for granted. Born in the aftermath of Nazi Germany’s industrial genocide, it is in constant battle against enemies who view its destruction as a sacred duty.

To these enemies, Israel is the ‘Little Satan’, a mere stepping stone in their fight to destroy the ‘Great Satan’, the US and its Western allies. As proclaimed by the founder of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Khomeini, ‘We shall export our revolution to the whole world. Until the cry “There is no god but Allah” resounds over the whole world, there will be struggle.’

In a rational world, this might prompt Western leaders to reflect on their reluctance to stand with Israel in its long-standing conflict with the Islamic Republic. Instead, the UK government and others are busy undermining the one democratic state in the Middle East that shares their values, enemies and interests – all while rolling out the diplomatic equivalent of a welcome mat for regimes that want us dead.

Over the past two years, the UK has suspended arms export licences to Israel and frozen trade talks. Meanwhile, it fast-tracked recognition of a Palestinian state led by a Palestinian Authority that rewards terrorists and rejects peace. It refuses to proscribe the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organisation, and keeps its Iranian embassy open even when Iran-backed terror attacks happen regularly on British soil. It gives virtually no pushback to the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas’s ideological parent, which has been permitted to entrench its Islamist agenda within British communities and institutions for years.

The asymmetry here is staggering: our politicians impose punitive measures on a democratic ally while maintaining a velvet-glove approach to the regimes and radicals seeking our (and Israel’s) destruction. It treats the Iranian regime, which views Britain as the ‘most evil’ of Western nations, as a legitimate diplomatic partner. This moral inversion doesn’t just weaken Israel – it makes all of us less safe.

Israel is the West’s front line in the Middle East. Whenever it’s hit, jihadi plots in Europe spike. If Israel falls, the vacuum won’t be filled by states that care about social justice or international law. It will be filled by the very forces that hate our way of life and want to destroy it.

Beyond ideology, the practical reality of British and European security is inextricably linked to Israeli survival. While our politicians posture, our security services are quietly relying on a partnership that keeps British citizens safe. This cooperation involves a vital exchange of high-end intelligence and defensive technology, including Israeli signals intelligence (the interception and analysis of electronic signals, from communications to radar) and other human assets – all which help thwart terror attacks on European soil. Be it drone technology or missile defence, Israeli innovation is woven into the fabric of Western military readiness. When Westminster downgrades this relationship because the optics get difficult, the UK degrades its own defences as a consequence.

I don’t argue this as a detached onlooker, but as someone who sees this collision from both sides. I was born and raised in Israel, but Britain has been my home for 17 years. My children are British. When I work to combat anti-Semitism here, it isn’t just out of tribal loyalty; it is also because the hatred being directed at Jews and the Jewish state is a precursor to a wider assault on the West. I have seen the front line first-hand, and I can tell you, it is moving closer to home.

And yet, British politicians are either totally unable or unwilling to contend with this reality. Westminster seems paralysed by a fear of domestic Islamic voting blocs and a loud, radicalised middle class. We have raised a generation of ‘anti-imperialist’ activists who view their own country as a racist, illegitimate entity that they would refuse to fight for. For members of this young, comfortable class, Israel is the ultimate villain because it represents everything they have been taught to loathe: national pride, borders and a willingness to fight for their own survival.

This weakness is mirrored in our crumbling hard power. Britain’s armed forces are at their smallest since the Napoleonic era. In the absence of the ability to deter threats, we seek instead to placate. We lecture Israel on ‘restraint’ because we no longer have the stomach for the reality of defence. British politicians parrot that ‘Israel has a right to exist’ while at the same time pursuing policies that directly threaten that existence. This has emboldened a growing anti-Zionist chorus in public life, including MPs, Green Party candidates and university lecturers who have moved beyond legitimate criticism of Israeli policies and settler violence to denying Israel’s very right to nationhood. By tolerating this rhetoric, we are legitimising an ideology that views the entire Western order as something to be torn down.

As Israel celebrates 78 years of defiance, Britain needs to make a choice: we can continue to indulge the ‘anti-colonial’ fantasies of our radicalised youth, as well as the Islamist sectarianism that undermines our national security, or we can recognise Israel for what it is: an essential security asset. It is time to stop treating our allies like enemies and our enemies like partners. The survival of the West may well depend on it.

Limor Simhony Philpott is a writer, policy adviser and researcher.