Debate on Israeli Government Actions

Father of the House, Edward Leigh

Those of us

who love the Jewish people and faith know that the

reason why they've overcome

all the empires that have tried to destroy them is that they're primarily people of

the book and not the sword. But what is happening in the West

Bank is absolutely violent and

egregious. It is worse than stopping the two-state

solution. It is ethnic cleansing.

Hear hear.

So will he agree that actually the Israeli government could

quite

easily differentiate between general trade and trade to these illegal

settlements?

Yeah, yeah.

Would he agree that there's no reason when our country

fully supports the right of Israel to defend itself that this

should affect our intelligence relationship?

So I say to him now, I am proud to say as the longest serving

member of the Conservative Friends of Israel that I

absolutely and fully support what he is doing today-

Hear hear

... because it is about standing up for

freedom,

for morality, and justice of all people in this world.

Hear hear.

Secretary of State.

Well, I, I do, I do thank him, uh, for his, uh, words, and I,

i- if I, if I may say, I also read, uh, his

extremely eloquent contribution in the backbench debate that took place

in July, uh, on these questions, and I was incredibly moved, uh,

by his words, uh, in that, uh, debate.

I, look, I believe he is, he is absolutely right in the way that he

talks about these issues. I think he is absolutely right to say that he and

I c- consider ourselves deep friends of Israel,

and that is absolutely consistent, and indeed I would argue necessary in

terms of what we are doing today. Because there can be no security, uh,

for the people of Israel without a two-state solution, and the

actions of its government over the past few years has not made

Israel more secure. It has made it less secure, uh, and

that should

trouble all friends of Israel across this country and across the world.

Hear hear.

I appreciate-