READ IN FULL: Sir Mick Davis’s speech on the diaspora and Israel’s future

The war has ended, and the living hostages have been returned. Our people take a breath and the tightness in our hearts has eased. But this is still an age of trauma, uncertainty and existential risk. We cannot afford to lose urgency.

I do not come to you tonight with easy answers, but as someone who has spent sleepless nights wrestling with the most difficult questions that the Jews have faced since the Shoah. There are many times when some schmuck has had to stand up and say what a great many might think but are constrained to say, and I have often been that schmuck. But as I look around this room, tonight, I become more hopeful that I might not be the only shmuck anymore.

I have always maintained my conviction that Israel must remain both the nation-state of the Jewish people and a beacon of democracy. But this year brought me to tears more times than I care to admit.

I have shared in the ongoing trauma of everyone in Israel and the Jewish world since 7 October. My faith in humanity was shaken to its core by the footage, that I have been privy to, of the pure evil carried out by Hamas. It will remain so forever. What has been seen cannot be unseen.

I have felt inadequate when people ask me why their friends  are silent about dead Jews, and I have no comforting answer to give.

I have been anguished by the destruction and devastation in Gaza, and yes – by the number of civilian deaths.

I have been sickened by the outrages of extremist settlers in the West Bank.

And I have felt bemused when people I respect deny the complexity of moral life or refuse to see truth because it brings discomfort to their preferred narrative.

There is urgent rebuilding to be done – for civilians — Israeli and Palestinian — who have endured terror and devastation. For the families of the fallen. And for the fraying trust between Israel and many of its longstanding friends.

I do not know about you, but I am tired. But fatigue is a privilege, and courage is a choice. We can carry on shuffling to the edge of the cliff in silence. Or we can speak plainly, act bravely, and demand a better path for our people.

Now is the time.

Now. Not when the next crisis hits. Not later. Not contingent on waiting to see what happens. But now!

In this moment these can no longer only be private concerns: they are our public responsibility!

I have spent a lifetime in two disciplines that reward clarity over comfort: building global enterprises where numbers do not lie and serving a Jewish public where values cannot be outsourced.

I have learnt that when the ground shifts beneath your feet you don’t recite old lines; you recalibrate and act.

But before we set out on the journey we must travel, we must acknowledge the darkness descending upon us.

Cliched the term might be, but I have always hugged and wrestled with Israel. I have never resented the contradictions in my emotional and ethnic connection to the Nation State of the Jewish People because I never expected perfection from it. Sometimes Israel has scaled peaks of excellence. Other times it has struggled, like every democracy, to find the right path; complicated in Israel’s case by its unique existential vulnerabilities.

I can live with that struggle and accept that the real world necessitates moral compromises.  But I cannot and will not accept deliberate malevolent intent. Because when we see assaults on Israel’s democratic fabric, when we see the authorities encourage and permit extremist outrages in the West Bank, when we see a government that chooses to promote racists and bigots in their country and in ours: these are not the difficult moral choices that have protected Israel and the Jewish people. These are wilful and deliberately immoral choices that endanger Israel and the Jewish people.

And we have a duty to say so!

I want to address four crises that converge to threaten Israel’s future and the future of the Jewish people:

First: The extinguishing of any hope of a peaceful settlement with the Palestinians.

Second: An assault on democratic institutions that undermines Israel’s founding values

Third: A failure of societal fairness that fractures the social contract and weakens social cohesion.

Fourth: Israel’s increasing isolation from the community of nations.

Let me deal with each.

First, we have a fragile ceasefire – not peace. The war achieved military objectives but offered no new political horizon.

It is striking that in just a few days Donald Trump and Jared Kushner spoke more about peace than any Israeli minister has in years. Now we need to seize the opportunities to put wide-ranging, secure peace back on the agenda. The notion that this toxic conflict could be “managed” was false.

Hamas is degraded but must be defeated. But Hamas’s ideology is not an airstrip you can crater. It regenerates in prisons, schools, and on screens — and in the political void we leave behind. Without a political horizon and a plan for post‑conflict governance that is neither Hamas nor chaos, we risk tactical wins and strategic stagnation.

Defeating Hamas requires an alternative, even if imperfect, that Palestinians, the region, and the international community can support. That means Israel must couple deterrence with a credible regional political strategy. It needs both. Security and peace are interconnected — not mutually exclusive.

But throughout the Gaza campaign extremists within Israel’s government pushed an agenda of reoccupation and boasted of plans to put a final nail in the coffin of a two-state solution and the hope of a secure peace for all Israelis and Palestinians living between the river and the sea.

The Torah teaches us:צֶ֥דֶק צֶ֖דֶק תִּרְדֹּ֑ף — Justice, justice you shall pursue. Not vengeance, not illusions of “total victory”, but justice. This is not just a Jewish imperative but the bedrock of Israel’s legitimacy. I hope with all my heart that the Trump plan renews the impetus for peace and sidelines all extremists.

In 1947 it was the Jews who accepted the concept of two states for two peoples contained in U.N. resolution 181. While today we have legitimate concerns about a credible path forward, the threats to Israel’s security and the bitter memory of violent rejections of previous efforts, Israel’s legitimacy derives from the two-state concept of that same UN resolution. Rejecting any concept of Palestinian statehood at any point, threatens Israel’s legitimacy. We therefore need steps that make two states more likely, not steps to make it impossible. If, however, the maximalist goal of annexation takes hold, then Israel’s status as a Jewish and democratic state will be finished and that would be a calamity.

Second, the assault upon the liberal democratic foundations of Israel. Israel’s lack of constitutional safeguards created a vulnerability, which was offset by the liberal democratic values of its Declaration of Independence, by an independent judiciary and a non-politicised defence and security establishment.

The judicial “coup” started in January 2023 and continues now. It seeks to remove the democratic guardrails. Why? So that an unprincipled extremist minority can gaslight an entire nation into its maximalist agenda.

Third, societal fairness. Societies that don’t deliver fairness to all their citizens are weaker, and Israel cannot afford to be weak. Coalition deals that entrench unequal civic rights and responsibilities, dissolve trust. When access to quality healthcare, education, and jobs vary depending on where you live, unfairness of opportunity is entrenched. When lawlessness ravages the homes and towns of the Arab Palestinian community – 20% of Israel’s citizens –and the State is impotent or unwilling to protect them, it is a failure for the entire society.

And fourth, we confront the worsening reality of Israel’s isolation. The end of the fighting will ameliorate it in the short term. But the long-term prospects, as the devastation in Gaza becomes clearer, are not good.  And those who wish to divide Israel from its allies are being aided and abetted by the extremists who pollute Israel’s government.

The seeds of isolation were planted years ago by enemies of Israel and the Jewish people, and are now sprouting uncontrollably. Antipathy to the Israeli government’s direction of travel is now mainstream.

The numbers tell a stark story. They keep me awake at night because of what they mean for future of the Jewish People. I go to sleep with fear as my companion and awake with panic by my side.

US favourability toward Israel has fallen to 57% — the lowest in two decades. Among young adults it’s catastrophic: from 64% favourable in 2023 to 38% in early 2024.

Support for Israel has declined in the UK and core European countries. In the UK sympathy for Palestinians is 2.5 times greater than for Israelis. In Europe, net favourability ratings have plummeted:    -48% in France, -55% in Spain, -52% in Italy.

Yet support for the two-state solution remains well above 50% across the western democracies, including the US. An August 2025 poll shows 58% of Americans supported UN recognition of Palestine. The political divide is interesting: 78% Democrats vs 41% Republicans but this is stark: in 2024 only 26% of Republicans were in favour of Palestinian statehood.

It is no surprise to see the cascade of international recognition of Palestinian statehood. Spain, Ireland, Norway, Slovenia. More recently and more significantly, the United Kingdom — Israel’s historic ally — France, Australia, Canada. These are not just symbolic gestures but strategic realignments. They impact export licensing, legal exposure, and corporate risk assessments.

Cultural, academic, sporting boycotts are multiplying – openly and by stealth – look at the treatment of Maccabi Tel Aviv supporters. But they are now being surpassed by financial and technical distancing. Politicians see the zeitgeist among their electorates. Sanctions become an easy option but would be tragic for both Israelis and Palestinians.

Isolation is not just an Israeli challenge but a challenge for world Jewry! It makes Jews vulnerable within their countries. Recent JPR polling of British Jews reveals that 74% now describe Israel’s situation as “bad” or “very bad.” In the United States, one-third of “strong liberal” Jews now believe U.S. support for Israel’s government is excessive.

Meanwhile, antisemitic incidents have reached record levels, bringing murder to Jewish communities in Colorado, in Washington DC and, last month in Manchester. 9,000 antisemitic incidents reported in the United States in 2024 alone, most linked to anti-Israel protests. In the UK, such incidents nearly doubled in the first half of 2024. In Germany, they almost doubled for the year. 83% of Jewish students have experienced or witnessed antisemitism on campus since October 7th. Our young people face a hostile environment. If they do not see their own values reflected by our leaders many may opt out altogether from the Zionist and Jewish enterprise that has sustained us through the millennia. And then we are all done.

Now is the time.

This antisemitic tsunami must be pushed back. But so too must the current assault on our values by the government of Israel because that too will be fatal to the Jewish future.

But who are we ? Are we just a minority of fringe outliers, standing up against extreme trends from all directions but without the numbers to make a difference?

No! We are no minority! We are the majority!

In fact, our data, courtesy of Molad, tells us that. Our community in the UK is deeply connected to Israel, but according to JPR polls 80% view Prime Minister Netanyahu unfavourably. But we are mostly silent, and it is our silence that is making us endangered.

We are not marginal. And it is time we stopped allowing ourselves to be hoodwinked into believing that we are.

We have agency! It is time we use it.

We built The London Initiative: not to hold another conference, or issue another statement, but to catalyse unprecedented partnership between like‑minded Israelis, world Jewry, and democratic allies. Between people who share The London Initiative’s commitment to what we call the Triangle — comprised of 3 interconnected propositions: mature liberal democracy, societal fairness, and secure peace. This triangle is not a luxury package for better times. It is our operating system.

But partnership requires partners willing to move beyond private handwringing to public leadership.

I want to make four urgent calls to action.

First: End the institutional silence.

Every major Jewish organisation should publicly articulate its commitment to the values of Israel’s Declaration of Independence. That is not criticism of Israel; it’s an affirmation of Zionism.

To our communal leaders —presidents of federations, chairs of boards, chief executives of legacy organisations — I say this with the urgency the moment demands: Your silence is not neutrality; it is complicity.

You were not elected or appointed to manage decline but to lead. When 51% of British Jews say Israel’s conduct clashes with their Jewish values, and younger American Jews are questioning their relationship with Israel — this is not a PR problem. This is a values crisis. And a values crisis calls for moral leadership.

Second: Oppose annexation unequivocally.

President Trump said in September that: “I will not allow Israel to annex the West Bank. I will not allow it. It’s not going to happen.”

Yet, for the extremists who have propped up Netanyahu’s government, annexation of the West Bank is the goal. Everything they have done, still do and plan to do – the judicial coup,  settlement expansion, curtailment of funds to the PA and stoking settler violence – is to create a set of facts on the ground to make annexation inevitable.

Annexation is not a pro-Israel policy. It is an anti-Zionist policy: it would endanger the Jewish state, and we should not outsource our opposition to it to Donald Trump. Jewish leaders in the Diaspora and in Israel have to harness the will of the Jewish people against it clearly, loudly and emphatically.

Third: Invest in mature liberal democracy, societal fairness and secure peace and recognise that they cannot be isolated from each other.

Support multilateral diplomacy. Fund Israeli organisations defending democratic institutions. Support initiatives expanding civic equality. Back those keeping the peace horizon alive. Israelis fighting for democracy, fairness and peace are asking for our support. Support them!

Fourth: Speak to your communities with honesty and courage.

Our communities need leadership that acknowledges complexity, validates their concerns and enables them to love Israel and critique its government simultaneously.

I speak not to scold, but as a penitent. I grew up in South Africa and regret that I did not engage against Apartheid — not because I was threatened, but because I felt I had no agency. That was my failure.

But when it comes to Israel, we have agency. We are not powerless. We are not without influence. With agency comes responsibility: to speak when speaking is hard; to act when action is costly; to lead when leadership is lonely.

We stand at a crossroads. Down one path lies continued institutional silence: drift, communal division, growing isolation and the slow suffocation of the Israel-Diaspora relationship.

Down the other lies the hard work of partnership: honest conversation, moral courage, strategic action and the renewal of Zionism for a new generation.

The promise of this moment is not that the world suddenly becomes simple, but that we can breathe long enough, together, to produce a tekiah gedolah—one long, sustaining note that carries across divisions and through fear.

The future of Israel, world Jewry and the Jewish people hang in the balance. And the balance tips with our choices, our voices and our courage.

Chazak, chazak, v’nitchazek — be strong, be strong, and let us strengthen one another.

Now is the Time.