Last Sunday Christians from Hartlepool to Hitchin and Hereford were among a parade of more than 4,000 people along Piccadilly and down Haymarket to Trafalgar Square. Everywhere along the route people clapped and cheered the contingent from Christian Friends of Israel. Catherine from Swindon says: “It was an amazing event and also a very humbling experience. I lost count of the number of people who came up to me and thanked me for my support for Israel.”
We had come together with the Jewish community to celebrate the sixtieth anniversary of the establishment of the State of Israel. In his speech in Trafalgar Square, the Chief Rabbi, Sir Jonathan Sacks, reminded the crowd that:
“In 1948, the day Israel was born, it was attacked on all fronts by the armies of five nations, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq. Three years after the Holocaust murdered one third of the Jewish people Israel's neighbours tried to murder the Jewish state. Since then, from that day to this, Israel has lived with war or the threat of war, terror or the threat of terror. Yet Israel has sought peace. In 1948, under Ben Gurion. In 1967 after the six day war. In 1991 at Madrid. In 1993 on the White House Lawn. In 1998, at Wye Valley. In 2000 at Camp David. In 2001 at Taba….”
In an eloquent plea for peaceful co-existence with Israel’s neighbours he continued : “Today, because of Israel, there is at least a possibility of peace. Yet every time Israel proposes peace, it is greeted with terror and suicide bombings, Katyushas and Kassams. Israel will continue to seek peace and we will continue to support it in doing so and we pay tribute to the British government for its support for Israel and for peace. We say to the Palestinians: you have a right to a home. All you have to do is recognize that the Jewish people also has a right to a home. Let us live, side by side, in peace.”
As if to demonstrate Israel’s commitment to this policy, Izaak Herzog, a cabinet minister from Israel, revealed that earlier on Sunday the cabinet had voted overwhelmingly in favour of a deal with Hezbollah, the terrorist group on Israel’s northern border with whom Israel was at war two years ago.
Under the terms of this deal Hezbollah will return the two Israeli captives, Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev whose kidnap from across the Lebanese border, and the killing of their colleagues sparked the war in 2006. It is feared the two soldiers may have been killed in the raid against Israel or died shortly after being taken captive, but Israel is willing to reach a deal for their return in whatever condition they are. In exchange Israel will release a Lebanese prisoner who is serving four life-sentences for murder and other prisoners.
As the crowd sang in Trafalgar Square, “May He who makes peace in His high places, make peace for us and all Israel – and let us say Amen”
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