OPINION: A Liberal dose of internationalist passion
The UK's third political party promises balance and compassion where it counts on Israel and Palestine
On 8th May 2015, the results of the General Election became known. The result was decisive. David Cameron had confounded the polls, pundits and country. The legacy of the Clegg/Cameron Coalition of 2010-2015 was that the Tory Wolf had eaten the Lib Dem sheep. Deputy Prime Minister Clegg and his/my Party were left with eight MPs.
Wind forward to 2019, things hadn’t improved much at all with the number of Lib Dem MPs sitting at a paltry 11, down one on the 2017 haul of 12 – “bleak” was the only word one could use to describe the mood and prospects for our Party.
Wind forward a further five years, and under the careful and compassionate leadership of Sir Ed Davey, we had won three massive swinging parliamentary by-elections and went into this campaign “quietly confident”. The result has been astounding. 72 MPs from all corners of the UK, and all in a back drop of the biggest geopolitical issue of the day being Israel/Gaza.
I took Layla Moran MP, our foreign affairs lead and only MP of Palestinian descent, to Israel at the end of 2022. I took Sir Ed Davey to the Gaza border in February of this year.
The message, leadership and deeply sensitive way in which the Party has handled the conflict has won praise and respect from religious, political and communal leaders. We can expect more of the same with the new empowered Lib Dem block in Parliament.
On UK diaspora and domestic issues, our friend and the Party’s home affairs lead in the last Parliament, Christine Jardine MP has been resolute and unflinching in her support for the CST, HET (Holocaust Educational Trust) and issues of wider concern to our community.
On Israel/Palestine, Lord Jeremy Purvis (our lead in the Lords), Layla and Sir Ed have led from the front. They are reasonable, balanced, compassionate and prepared to speak truth to power. Our sister Party in Israel, Yesh Atid, led by former Israeli PM Yair Lapid, have also helped and given how much of a touch point things in the Middle East can be.
Our community and Israel can be confident we will see the same internationalist, compassionate Liberalism looking ahead from the UK’s new emboldened third party.
- Gavin Stollar, honorary Chairman, Liberal Democrat Friends of Israel
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