A future government led by Labour would forge closer links with Israel, said party leader Ed Miliband in an address to an annual dinner of the Labour Friends of Israel group in London.
‘’I want you to know that if I become Prime Minister in less than a year’s time, I will be proud to do so as a friend of Israel, a Jew and, most of all, someone who feels so proud to be part of the community gathered here today.’’
He also used the opportunity to express his support for the #BringBackOurBoys campaign which hopes to raise awareness around the three Israeli teenagers who were kidnapped in Israel last week by Palestinian terrorists.
Miliband said: "I am sure all of our thoughts today are with the 3 kidnapped Israeli teenagers, Naftali Frenkel, Gilad Shaar, and Eyal Yifrach and their families. We all profoundly hope for their speedy and safe return."
Speaking of his visit to Israel last April, he praised Israel as ‘’an amazing economic powerhouse’’. ‘’The Israel I experienced on my trip was one that is seizing the future: like the young people at Hebrew University and the thrilling innovation and entrepreneurship of new and high tech businesses.Israel is a major world innovator and I was inspired by the work of the high tech hub, organised by the British Embassy.’’
‘’We learnt some of the interesting lessons about Israel’s success: the rate of graduate entry, immigration bringing new skills, the availability of venture capital and the collaboration between private and public enterprise,’’ he added.
He continued, ‘’We visited Sderot and I saw the rockets that had been fired from Gaza and landed in that town. I heard from the Mayor about the reinforcements against rockets they had to build for their local schools. And Justine and I met children, no older than my own, who don’t get the luxury of playing outside as ours do, but are assigned to an inside bunker playground.’’
‘’Attaching the right priority to our relationship with Israel means fully understanding its security concerns and the threat to its people,’’ Miliband said.
He outlined what he believes most people understand an agreement between Israel and the Palestinians would look like, consisting of, “Two states for two peoples, based on 1967 lines with mutually agreed land swaps, with Israel as the homeland for the Jewish people and the state of Palestine as the homeland for the Palestinian people.”
‘’Settlement building in the occupied territories is a significant threat to a negotiated agreement,’’ he stated. ‘’As we heard during our trip, the real fear is that settlement activity makes the viability of a two state solution more challenging.’’
According to The Jewish Chronicle, attempts by Miliband to reform his party’s links with the trade unions could be spurring grassroots opposition to Israel.
Supporters of Israel believe the Labour leader's disputes with the unions over funding and voting rights have partly led to a raft of vehement anti-Israel motions being tabled at two major conferences in the coming weeks, the weekly Jewish newspaper writes.
Trade unionists are expected to accuse Israel of ethnic cleansing and call for refreshed boycott attempts as part of their backlash against Miliband's policies.