{"id":191658,"date":"2019-07-17T05:55:48","date_gmt":"2019-07-17T05:55:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=191658"},"modified":"2019-07-19T07:32:06","modified_gmt":"2019-07-19T07:32:06","slug":"uk-pm-hopeful-as-a-passionate-zionist-i-love-israel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=191658","title":{"rendered":"UK PM-hopeful: As a \u2018passionate Zionist\u2019, I \u2018love\u2019 Israel"},"content":{"rendered":"

Middle East Monitor \u2013 July 10, 2019<\/strong><\/h1>\n
\"\"<\/a>

Like Presidents Clinton, Bush, Obama and Trump such displays are now EXPECTED of Western leaders. Boris Johnson’s stepmother Jenny, the second wife of his father Stanley, is the stepdaughter of Edward Sieff, the former chairman of Marks & Spencer. In other words Johnson is part of a closely connected Jewish-British elite.<\/p><\/div>\n

UK prime ministerial hopeful Boris Johnson has said that he \u201cloves\u201d the \u201cgreat country\u201d of Israel and considers himself a \u201cpassionate Zionist\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

In an exclusive interview with UK newspaper Jewish News<\/strong><\/span><\/em><\/a>, <\/em>Johnson \u2013 the former British foreign secretary who is now hoping to lead the ruling Conservative Party and, therefore, the country \u2013 yesterday described himself as a \u201cpassionate Zionist\u201d and Israel as a \u201cgreat country\u201d that \u201cI love\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

Johnson also sought to clarify his previous comments about Israel\u2019s 2014 assault<\/a><\/strong><\/span> on the besieged<\/strong><\/span><\/a> Gaza Strip, which he once described as \u201cdisproportionate\u201d. Johnson yesterday claimed \u201cit\u2019s totally unacceptable that innocent Israeli civilians should face the threat of rocket fire and bombardment from Gaza,\u201d adding: \u201cI understand why Israel reacted in the way that it did and I understand the provocation and the outrageous behaviour that occasioned that response.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

He continued: \u201cThose of us who support Israel always want Israel to show the greatest possible restraint [but] Israel has a right to respond, Israel has a right to defend itself. Israel has a right to meet force with force.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Johnson also discussed other aspects of the UK\u2019s relationship with Israel, saying he was \u201cproud to be the Mayor who led the first ever London-Israel trade mission<\/a><\/strong><\/span>\u201d in 2015. Johnson served as mayor of UK capital London from 2008 to 2016, but stressed that, if he becomes the UK prime minister later this month, he \u201cwill be actively supporting trade and commercial engagements of all kinds [with Israel]\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

The politician also addressed the prospect of moving the British Embassy to Israel to Jerusalem, following in the footsteps of US President Donald Trump\u2019s December 2017 decision<\/strong><\/span><\/a>. Johnson said he could \u201csee the logic\u201d of the British government pursuing such a policy, but added that \u201cthe moment for us to play that card is when we make further progress\u201d. Johnson did not specify what form this progress would take.<\/span><\/p>\n

On Palestinian issues, Johnson condemned the Palestinian Authority (PA)\u2019s payment of stipends<\/strong><\/span><\/a> to the families of Palestinians imprisoned in Israeli jails. \u201cI think it\u2019s ludicrous that there should be any kind of financial incentive or compensation for terrorist activities,\u201d he argued, claiming that he has spoken to PA President Mahmoud Abbas about the policy in the past.<\/span><\/p>\n

Johnson also appeared to label the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS<\/a><\/strong><\/span>) movement anti-Semitic. Asked whether he agreed with rival candidate for the Conservative leadership, current Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt, that boycotts of Israel are anti-Semitic, Johnson claimed they \u201coften stem from that syndrome, definitely\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

He added: \u201cAnybody who knows anything about it knows that actually the boycott and disinvestment movement will probably hit hardest Palestinian [\u2026] people who are in jobs, are benefitting from Israeli investment, Israeli farming, whatever. It just makes no sense at all.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Efforts to label BDS anti-Semitic have gained pace in recent weeks, after the German parliament in May voted<\/a> to pass a non-binding motion to this effect. The motion claimed that BDS\u2019 \u201cdon\u2019t buy\u201d stickers \u2013 which aim to identify products of Israeli origin so consumers can refrain from purchasing them \u2013 \u201carouse associations [with] the Nazi slogan \u2018Don\u2019t buy from Jews\u2019\u201d and are \u201creminiscent of the most horrific phase in German history\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

Despite widespread condemnation<\/strong><\/span><\/a>, Israel has continued to pressure other European states to follow Germany\u2019s lead, even seeking to prevent<\/strong><\/span><\/a> the Palestine Expo<\/strong><\/span><\/a> \u2013 Europe\u2019s largest Palestine exhibition which took place in London this weekend \u2013 from happening and trying to ban<\/a><\/strong><\/span> its Knesset members from attending.<\/span><\/p>\n

Johnson is no stranger to controversial statements: he has previously said that Muslim women wearing the burqa or niqab look like \u201cletterboxes<\/strong><\/span>\u201d<\/a> and \u201cbank robbers\u201d; referred to Africans using the racial slur \u201cpicanninies\u201d with \u201cwatermelon smiles\u201d; and claimed that former US President Barack Obama\u2019s decision to remove a bust of former British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, from the White House Oval Office was \u201ca symbol of the part-Kenyan president\u2019s ancestral dislike of the British Empire\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

These statements have caused concern about Johnson\u2019s suitability for the position of prime minister, which he will automatically assume if he is elected as Conservative Party leader this month. Johnson could serve as prime minister until 2022 without holding a general election, which would represent five years since his soon-to-be-predecessor, Theresa May, held the UK\u2019s last general election.<\/span><\/p>\n

The results of the Conservative Party leadership race are expected on 23 July, with May likely to step down as prime minister the following day.<\/span><\/p>\n

Source <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Boris Johnson says he loves \u201cthe great nation of Israel\u201d. While his rival in the race for Number 10, Jeremy Hunt, says that boycotts of Israel are \u201canti-Semitic\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39262,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-191658","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-Israel_Anti-Semitism_Zionism_and_US-UK_allies"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191658","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/39262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=191658"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191658\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":191662,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191658\/revisions\/191662"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=191658"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=191658"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=191658"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}