Eylon Levy tells audience at St John’s Wood shul: ‘Become part of this moment of history’

A hint by Israeli government spokesman Eylon Levy that he might like to be his country’s ambassador in the UK emerged during a standing-room-only event at St John’s Wood Synagogue on Monday night.

The crowds had turned out for spokesman Levy, only to be disappointed that he was not present in person as he had had to return early to Israel from his whistlestop visit to the UK at the weekend.

But the British-born Levy, who said he was “gutted” at not being a physical presence, agreed to take part in a Zoom round of close questioning by Jewish News news editor Justin Cohen, during which he admitted that in the months since the Hamas attacks on 7 October, he had still not had a face-to-face encounter with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Instead, he told the audience how presentation of Israel’s position was hammered out in intensive briefings with a media team — “but we have a lot of wiggle room as to how to present Israel’s message”.

Described by Cohen as the holder of “one of the toughest jobs on planet earth”, Levy spoke frankly about some of his more difficult interviews, including a recent one with Channel 4 anchor Krishnan Guru-Murthy. “Krishnan has a style of interviewing — unlike some people who will take you to 100 different topics and never allowing you to complete a thought — of hammering on the same point over and over again, even though you’ve explained it over and over again”.

At the end of that particular bruising encounter, Levy said, the Channel 4 journalist had had “a look on his face as if to say, well played, sir, that I had managed to hold my own in that interview… sometimes there are interactions with the journalist behind the scenes, where they’ve put up a stiff fight, and they appreciate that you’ve held your ground under fire, even if they remain unconvinced”.

Despite having been heavily involved in the judicial reform protests against the Israeli government, Levy saw no contradiction in now becoming its spokesman, saying it was “the most obvious thing in the world” that everyone in Israel would drop everything and rally round the flag. “We as a society are in total war footing. Some people put on uniform. I put on a suit and tie and went into battle as well.”

Levy acknowledged that in the propaganda war, Israel was often “outmanned, outgunned and outnumbered”. But, he said, “the challenge is to remind people about October 7” and the “sadistic psychopaths” with whom Israel was dealing.

He warned of “a narrative taking shape in the media as if the UK is trying to distance itself from Israel”. He asked people to remind their MPs of the consequences if Hamas was left standing. “Help leaders and opinion-makers connect the dots between Hamas and the Houthis,” he said. “We hope that the Houthi attacks [in the Red Sea] will help the British public to connect this to Iran, and that we are being attacked by Iran’s proxies. It’s all part of Iran’s strategies which it has built up over decades, to try to extend its imperialism and its control over the Middle East”.

Hamas’s mission in trying to destroy Israel was fuelled in part because “Israel is the strongest bulwark” against Iranian control in the region. “Stand up for British interests,” he urged. “because British interests and Israeli interests in this war are completely aligned”.

If he had one piece of advice for British Jewish parents, Levy said, it would be “please send your children to debating societies”. The eight years in which he had been involved in school in London had enabled him to think on his feet, to think critically and hold his ground, and “had done more to help me make the case for Israel than anything else”.

The government spokesman repeatedly turned down opportunities to discuss details for Gaza after Hamas, saying only that he hoped the Gaza Strip would be “de-radicalised” and that “we need the Palestinians to understand that this is a watershed moment, that terrorism has brought them nothing but misery and there is no light at the end of that tunnel”.

Whoever was in charge of the Strip, he said, “should not be funding terrorism, but fighting terrorism. We do not think that the Palestinian Authority is a serious option for taking over the Gaza Strip… we would like to see an international task force, led by the US, in cooperation with regional partners on the ground.”

In a more light-hearted vein, Levy said it would “be the honour of a lifetime” if he were tapped to become Israel’s third British-born ambassador to the UK (following Yehuda Avner and Daniel Taub). “If duty calls,” he said with a smile, adding “but we’re not there yet”. He ruled out, however, entering politics, saying that would be something for much later in his life, if at all.

The spokesman concluded his interview by urging British Jews to visit Israel, either on missions or to volunteer in places where Israelis had been called up to serve in the army. “Become part of this moment of history,” he said.

The audience was also addressed by Israel Channel 12 European correspondent Elad Simchayoff; and Natasha Hausdorff from UK Lawyers for Israel. The event, which was held under the auspices of Tzemach Productions and the Houmous Foundation, closed with Hatikvah sung by 16-year-old Shelly Chitiyat.