Joan Ryan MP has sent letters, to the Malaysian high commissioner and minister for sports, in protest at the country denying entry visas to Israeli swimmers to compete in this summer’s World Para Swimming Championships, a qualifying event for the 2020 Tokyo Paralympic Games. You can view the letter Malaysian Read more…
Israel has begun to lift the veil on its eight-year effort to counter Iran’s attempt to further its ambitions in Syria during the country’s bloody civil war. In an interview with the Sunday Times last weekend, Lieutenant-General Gadi Eisenkot, Israel’s top military commander, spoke openly for the first time about its strategy in Read more…
It has been dubbed the most consequential election in Israel’s 70-year history, but, only two weeks since the firing gun was pulled on a 9 April poll, a series of bewildering moves have shaken the country’s political landscape. The election – not officially due until November – was called on Read more…
Benjamin Netanyahu’s legal difficulties deepened further on Saturday with police recommending new bribery charges against him. In potentially the most serious of several cases involving the prime minister – known as “Case 4000” – police have recommended that he face charges of accepting bribes, fraud and breach of trust, and fraudulently accepting Read more…
Labour Friends of Israel Annual Lunch, 27 November 2018 Remarks by the Ambassador of Israel, HE Mark Regev. Check against delivery. Chief Rabbi, Chair of the Jewish Agency, Isaac Herzog, Deputy Leader, Tom Watson, Chair of LFI, Joan Ryan, Parliamentarians and friends, And a very special thanks to Sir Read more…
*** CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY *** Rt Hon Joan Ryan MP Labour Friends of Israel Annual Lunch 2018 Chief Rabbi, Ambassador Regev, friends Thank you to all of you for being here today. In particular, I want to thank Sir David Garrard and Isaac Kaye, our long-standing lunch sponsors. I also want to thank all Read more…
LFI chair Joan Ryan MP has written for Jewish News about LFI’s campaign in support of the International Fund for Israeli-Palestinian Peace. You can read the original here. The past year has seen precious little progress for those of us who wish to see peace between Israel and the Palestinians. Read more…
Thirty years ago this month, Yitzhak Shamir eked out a narrow win in Israel’s general election. That election marked the last occasion when an Israeli government has managed to serve out its full term. Coalition crises and prime ministers “cutting and running” in a bid to capitalise on political opportunities Read more…
The risk of all-out war between Israel and Hamas appears to have receded today. An uneasy ceasefire brought to an end an intense round of rocket attacks which threatened to blow off course a truce between the two sides which had been months in the making. Some 460 rockets were Read more…
Ordinary Gazans oppose the bloody, Hamas-led weekly border protests and want a ceasefire with Israel, newly released polling shows. The research – carried out among representative samples of approximately 500 randomly selected Gazans during early October by the Bethlehem-based Palestine Centre for Public Opinion and by a Ramallah-based organisation – shows the conflict-weary Read more…
Rarely has an American administration invested such hope in – or kow-towed so nakedly to – a Middle Eastern state in the manner which Donald Trump’s has done since taking office last January. The president’s entire strategy for the region appears to have been shaped by a belief that Saudi Read more…
The fragile working relationship between Israel and Russia in Syria – which gave Israel freedom of manoeuvre in Syrian skies – has come under severe strain after the downing of a Russian Ilyushin military intelligence plane, killing the 15 servicemen on board. The incident, which occurred in mid-September, saw Syrian Read more…