This has been an interesting couple of weeks being a British and Israeli citizen, with the British Prime Minister David Cameron firstly commenting in Turkey that Israel had to stop making Gaza a ghetto. Shimon Peres Israel's President hit back in an interview last week that the Britain's leadership is again anti-semitic.
I have been warning for the last couple of years that it has been increasingly difficult to be a supporter of Israel in Britain, with the dominant view being that Israel is punnishing the Palestinians, while the opposite is often the case. So this spat is no surprise to me.
Since coming to power Benjamin Netenyahu the Israeli Prime Minister has continually tried to make it possible to have peace talks with the Palestinians but their leader Abbas continually comes up with new reasons to say he wont talk. He has even started saying that before making any decision he has to get the support of the Arab world. (So maybe it is time for Israel to negotiate peace with the whole Arab world rather than just the Palestinians. This may also show that Israel is the small country defending itself against the big Arab world that for the past 60 odd years has in the most part even refused to accept Israel as a country.)
Israel has even had to again come under military attack from rockets from Egypt on Monday (in addition to the constant - if reduced rocket levels from Gaza) and yesterday from Lebanon. So this shows that Israel is still in a war with its Arab neighbours when we have to continue to defend ourselves.
This may not suit the British foreign view that needs Middle Eastern business and oil, and as Shimon Peres highlighted virtually always has backed the Middle Eastern Arab's over Israel. However, I thought David Cameron was different. I thought he understood that democratic countries have to defend themselves against terrorists, this includes Hamas which is continually calling for Israel's destruction. That is why Israel needs to protect itself by controlling what goes into Gaza.
David Cameron always likes to say he is a friend of Israel. So my message is that David - when you become Prime Minister you have to make clearer decisions - so you can't just be a friend in good times but also when we need your help. If you do this, life for everyone in Israel and the Jewish people of Britain will then again become easier.
