Kosovo becomes first European country to open Jerusalem embassy

Turkey has led international condemnation of Kosovo’s decision to open an embassy in Jerusalem. For the Balkan state, however, Israeli recognition of its independence is more important than appeasing its erstwhile allies.

Kosovo has officially opened an embassy in the city of Jerusalem, the first European and Muslim-majority country to do so.

The event was marked with a brief ceremony during which the flag of Kosovo was raised in front of the building that now serves as its embassy.

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• The explainer: The EU’s Kosovo awkward squad
• Time for Kosovo to secure its true independence
• In Kosovo, an electoral earthquake

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Ines Demiri, Kosovo’s charge d’affaires to Israel, called it a “truly proud and historic moment”.

“The greatest honour of my life is to have this opportunity to open the embassy and proudly serve my country in Israel,” Demiri wrote on Twitter.

The opening of the embassy follows a landmark agreement between Kosovo and Israel to establish diplomatic relations. Israel, previously a notable holdout, recognised Kosovo’s independence in September last year.

As part of the deal, Kosovo in turn recognised Jerusalem as the capital of Israel – a move that put it at odds with the rest of the Islamic world, and which also brought condemnation from the European Union. Kosovo joins the United States and Guatemala as the only countries who have moved their embassies in Israel to Jerusalem. Earlier this month, Czechia opened a representative office in the city, while its official embassy remains in Tel Aviv.

“The embassy will be strongly committed to increasing bilateral cooperation and strengthening the international subjectivity of the state of Kosovo,” said the country’s acting foreign minister Besnik Tahiri, who added that Israel’s recognition of Kosovo is one of the most important since the country declared independence from Serbia in 2008.

Obligations fulfilled

With the embassy now open, Kosovo has fulfilled all of its obligations under the Kosovo and Serbia economic normalisation agreement signed at the White House last September.

As part of the deal, Serbia, which has long had diplomatic ties with Israel, also agreed to move its embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, but has yet to do so.

The provision that both countries would open embassies in the disputed city was controversial from the start. The Trump administration recognised Jerusalem as the capital of Israel in 2017 and then moved the country’s embassy the following year.

In the EU however, this is seen as a violation of international law, with all member states sticking to the United Nations consensus that the final status of Jerusalem should be resolved through negotiation, and therefore locating their embassies in Tel Aviv prior to a final, negotiated, agreement.

The international community, bar the United States, sees East Jerusalem as occupied territory. Two UN resolutions have condemned Israel’s attempt to annex the part of the city that Palestinians are claiming as the future capital of their own state.

Turkey, a close ally of Kosovo and one of the first countries to recognise its independence, has nevertheless led condemnation of Kosovo for opening a Jerusalem embassy.

“By acting this way, Kosovar leaders have violated the established parameters of the peace process, including the relevant UN resolutions on the status of Jerusalem,” said the country’s foreign ministry in a statement.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan had previously warned Kosovo’s PM-designate Albin Kurti that setting up an embassy in Jerusalem could damage relations between the two countries.

Recognition above all

For Kosovo, however, boosting the number of countries that recognise it is currently more important than EU membership.

Serbia has for a number of years been carrying out a campaign to persuade countries to ‘de-recognise’ Kosovo.

Serbia’s campaign, where the country attempted and at times succeeded in persuading third countries to withdraw their recognition of Kosovo’s independence has been extremely controversial, and was partly the reason behind Kosovo’s introduction of 100 per cent import tariffs on Serbian goods in 2018. The tariffs were removed in April 2020.

Conversely, Kosovo’s attempts to join international organisations has always been frustrated by officials in Belgrade. Serbian leaders have long viewed any potential inclusion of Kosovo in organisations such as Interpol as strengthening the position of a country that it still considers to be one of its provinces.

Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008, nine years after NATO conducted a 78-day airstrike campaign to stop a Serb crackdown against ethnic Albanians in Kosovo.

Most Western nations – including the US – have recognised Kosovo’s independence, but Serbia and its allies Russia and China, as well as five EU countries (Cyprus, Greece, Romania, Slovakia, Spain) have not.

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Photo: Kosovo Foreign Ministry.

'Amazons of the Mossad'

Female spy-warriors who worked in Israel's testosterone-fueled intelligence agency are revealed in new book 'The Mossad Amazons'

Guy Horowitz

Agent Isabel Pedro. Under then-agency director Yitzhak Shamir, she conducted secret operations in Egypt in the 1960s. Photo reproduction: Ilya Melnikov

New Book Reveals the 'Amazons of the Mossad'

Female spy-warriors who worked in Israel's testosterone-fueled intelligence agency are revealed in new book 'The Mossad Amazons'

Guy Horowitz

Sarah Aaronsohn. The member of the World War I Jewish underground is cited in "The Mossad Amazons" as “the first woman fighter in the land of Israel.” No credit

“The Mossad Amazons,” by Nissim Mishal and Michael Bar-Zohar (English version forthcoming in April; Ktav Publishing House)

Among all of Israel’s security services, the Mossad has perhaps stirred the greatest curiosity. Its operations abroad, particularly in enemy countries, have long fired imaginations. But its glory has apparently faded a bit in recent decades, as has happened to other Israeli institutions, despite the organization’s somewhat romantic aura of secrecy. 

The cover of the book in Hebrew. An English version will come out in April, by Ktav Publishing House. Yedioth Books / Talia Bar

Various shortcomings have overshadowed the national consensus vis-a-vis the Mossad, among them operational failures abroad. These include the botched attempt to assassinate then-Hamas leader Khaled Meshal in Jordan in 1997, and the political exploitation of successful espionage operations that once remained a secret for years, like exposure of the Iranian nuclear archives in 2018.

But the Mossad’s secret activities – those we know about, and numerous others that we imagine have happened – along with the organization’s valuable operational and intelligence achievements over the years, are still a source of pride for many Israelis. The Mossad remains a successful Israeli brand, and there’s nothing like a new book that comes out with new revelations about its workings to capture the hearts of readers and to make it a best seller (“The Mossad Amazons” came out in Hebrew last August; the English version is forthcoming)

Veteran Israeli journalist Nissim Mishal has joined forces in writing “The Mossad Amazons” with former lawmaker Michael Bar-Zohar, who has published many biographies of prominent local political figures, including David Ben-Gurion and Shimon Peres, and many books about local political history and security matters. 

A snack, not a meal

In their new book the duo shine a light on a different subject: the role played by women in Mossad operations. A riveting as well as current topic. If in the past stories of female fighters/operatives in various organizations were packaged in a sexist way – focusing, for example, on the targets who were assassinated “after lured by women” – it is about time to show the women working for the Mossad - obviously no less talented, successful or sophisticated than their male peers - their proper respect.

Among those mentioned in the book is Isabel Pedro, who was assigned in the 1960s by the Mossad, under the auspices of its then-director, Yitzhak Shamir, to conduct operations in Egypt; she succeeded, among other things, to procure the plans for the Aswan Dam. There’s also Cheryl Bentov, known by her code name “Cindy,” who helped capture nuclear whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu in 1986; Sylvia Rafael, who participated in many Mossad operations around the world, including a failed one in Lillehammer, Norway in 1973, where a Moroccan waiter, Ahmed Bouchiki, was shot to death after being mistaken for senior Fatah and PLO figure Ali Hassan Salameh; and Aliza Magen-Halevi, who planned and participated in dozens of operations, and was the first female deputy Mossad chief, in the 1990s. Sarah Aaronsohn – a member of Nili, the Jewish spy network working on behalf of the British in World War I – also gets an honorable mention in the new book as “the first woman fighter in the land of Israel.”

Many books and articles have been written about espionage and intelligence work done by women, but this is the first time a comprehensive story is being told about those in the service of the Mossad - even though many of the dangerous activities in which these and other female agents/fighters participated have been revealed in the past.  

Thus, Mishal and Bar-Zohar’s latest collaboration has indeed been a source of curiosity and great expectations, and despite its limitations, it is a very impressive undertaking. The authors interviewed dozens of female Mossad agents and were authorized to describe details never before published about the operations they engaged in, some of them quite recent.

Israeli model and actress Bar Refaeli playing a Mossad agent in the French-Israeli movie 'Kidon,' based on the story of the assassination of Mahmoud Al-Mabhouh in Dubai. AP

“The Mossad Amazons” is an impressive work in terms of scope. Moreover, the authors were granted permission to mention details never before published, and some of the people featured have never been exposed before, not even by their code names, and their stories are exciting and of national and operational import. book also has a promising beginning: a very brief chapter called “A woman fighter speaks,” a monologue by a female Mossad operative referred to as “Liat.” It is written in the first person and does justice to the character involved; her story breaks the familiar mold of the authors’ previous books.

However, the style of writing of the following chapters steals the limelight from many of the stories – some of which, particularly the most recent ones, have had gag orders lifted that allowed their publication for the first time. Even interviews conducted recently sound like other agency “legends” that have been handed down for generations. With such material – some of it up-to-date and of real relevance (such as the description of the exposure of the nuclear reactor in Syria) – and with such impressive access to women who were never interviewed before, the authors could have achieved a much more meaningful and personable result. Unlike the protagonists of their book, chosen painstakingly and celebrated for their daring and improvisational abilities, Mishal and Bar-Zohar are stuck in their old-fashioned way of writing and fail to meet the challenge. 

Mishal and Bar-Zohar chose to tell the stories in chronological order, with each agent getting her own chapter, or sometimes several being mentioned at a time if they worked in tandem, which gives the book a schematic structure: Here’s the story of a Mossad recruit, this is how she was trained, this is how she penetrated the target country, and here’s the operation on the basis of which she is being mentioned in this book.

Each new female Mossad fighter is, therefore, presented at the start of each chapter, with few exceptions such as Magen-Halevi or Rafael, and then they disappear with no further mention elsewhere in the volume, which means there is no truly in-depth look at the significance of and the lessons that may be learned from the personal stories of these women in the testosterone-infused world of espionage. Nearly any mention of the dilemmas or misgivings these women had about a specific operation, or relating to the larger picture in general, remains at a superficial level – one that relates more to femininity and sex, to the fear they experience when they pull the trigger, and of course to their yearning for romantic relationships. Thus, there are no surprising lessons in this book, but plenty of clichés. 

Sarah Aaronsohn. The member of the World War I Jewish underground is cited in "The Mossad Amazons" as “the first woman fighter in the land of Israel.” No credit

Each new female Mossad fighter is, therefore, presented at the start of each chapter, with few exceptions such as Magen-Halevi or Rafael, and then they disappear with no further mention elsewhere in the volume, which means there is no truly in-depth look at the significance of and the lessons that may be learned from the personal stories of these women in the testosterone-infused world of espionage. Nearly any mention of the dilemmas or misgivings these women had about a specific operation, or relating to the larger picture in general, remains at a superficial level – one that relates more to femininity and sex, to the fear they experience when they pull the trigger, and of course to their yearning for romantic relationships. Thus, there are no surprising lessons in this book, but plenty of clichés. A large number of quotes and stories about women in the Mossad come from others here, and when finally the heroines themselves get the right to speak, their recollections almost always start, or end, with clichés. “There are of course moments of fear,” one of them says, adding that fear-induced adrenaline helps to face challenges and “to do the impossible.” What is expected of a female agent of the Mossad? Personal charm, equanimity and calmness, and a sense of adventure, she says: “Without that I wouldn’t be there.” 

‘Shocked’ handlers

“It’s now the turn of Sylvia’s handlers to be shocked,” the authors write, describing the revelation of a romantic relationship that agent Rafael had kept secret. Her superiors knew Rafael was “an independent, romantic woman,” but didn’t believe she’d get involve in something like that without informing them, Mishal and Bar-Zohar continue, adding that Sylvia apparently had a fling with one or more other Mossad men in Paris, which she also didn’t report to the higher-ups; she yearned for love, for “a warm and personal relationship.” 

Actress Liron Vaisman in the Keshet TV franchisee film "Agent in the Heart of Beirut," about Mossad operative "Yael." Screenshot of Keshet TV franchisee Facebook page

Between the lines you get the impression that, according to the authors, the background of a Mossad woman’s romantic relationships was completely different than that of their male counterparts, whose love affairs were ostensibly conducted for “utilitarian” purposes. 

About “Liron,” one of the other female heroines mentioned in the book – an outstanding and decorated Mossad operative, in the mid-1990s – the authors reveal that, during her stint in the agency, she discovered that a “good-looking and smart woman” has an advantage. She knew that women “arouse less suspicion than men,” and that while women may have less physical strength than men, “they use their brains more.” A woman’s way of thinking and a man’s strength are an amazing combination – “the sky is the limit,” the authors write. This sort of old-fashioned, annoying narrative runs all throughout their book.

Michael Bar-Zohar, co-author of "The Mossad Amazons." To their credit, he and Mishal got permission to mention agents and operations never publicized before. Nir Kafri

Anyone who has read one or more of the Mishal-Bar-Zohar books will recognize in the first pages that “The Mossad Amazons” is a continuation of what they’ve done before, rather than heralding a literary work that stands on its own, and it shares the same flaws as their earlier collaborations: It uses an outdated, flowery approach that tends to overdo the drama, and hardly ventures into any discussion relating to the moral aspects of this story, beyond presenting operational details or gossip. For enthusiasts of the genre and others who view the book as a collection of suspense-filled espionage adventures, which isn’t too complicated and doesn’t ask too many questions that might have been raised regarding the subject of female agents in the Mossad – all this won’t bother them. After all we are talking about a snack, not an entire meal. 

Similar to other best sellers by Mishal and Bar-Zohar about the agency, this book also includes a lot of already chewed-over materials; it merely emphasizes the stories of female operatives who worked for the organization, along with some new details and anecdotes. For example, there’s the story of “Sigal,” a Mossad agent who apparently notched up many impressive achievements, but the only thing the authors offer readers about her work is a bunch of generalities with no sting – along the lines of: “The contacts she created, especially at senior levels, continue to bear fruit.” But without the name of her target country or any other significant details, one can only read this and be jealous of the great access Mishal and Bar-Zohar had to the Mossad personnel they interviewed. From the story itself, details of which have been censored, of course, too little meat remains and the reader’s natural curiosity is not satisfied.

Nissin Mishal, co-author of "The Mossad Amazons." Even recent interviews sound like agency "legends" handed down for generations. Tomer Appelbaum

The final result is rather disappointing, especially considering the feeling you get while reading “The Mossad Amazons” that an entirely different kind of book could have been written. It does have a

However, perhaps out of an intent to grab more readers, Mishal and Bar-Zohar chose to use a lot of clichés and something less than fine literary writing. There are many details and names cited without any attempt to dive even a little into the depths of the heroines’ decision making or the psychological aspects of being a spy in enemy territory. Other authors, including writers of fictional novels who were spies themselves, such as John Le Carre or Jonathan de Shalit  (the pen name of a former Israeli security establishment figure), knew how to crack open the psychological complexities of the life of an espionage agent. Moreover, the female characters they created – including operative Yaara Stein, in de Shalit’s book – evidenced the nuances of the emotions and dilemmas you would expect to see in a book about real Mossad women. The authors sacrifice depth on the altar of the template, and their range of fire doesn’t make up for the sense of an opportunity missed.

Opportunity Beckons in the Mideast

The geopolitical earthquake that began with the Abraham Accords hasn’t ended. More than 130,000 Israelis have visited Dubai since President Trump hosted the peace deal’s signing this past September, and air travel opened up for the first time in August. New, friendly relations are flowering—wait until direct flights get going between Israel and Morocco. We are witnessing the last vestiges of what has been known as the Arab-Israeli conflict.

The conflict’s roots stretch back to the years after World War II, when Arab leaders refused to accept the creation of the state of Israel and spent 70 years vilifying it and using it to divert attention from domestic shortcomings. But as more Muslims visit Israel through Dubai, images are populating on social media of Jews and Muslims proudly standing together. More important, Muslims are posting pictures of peaceful visits to the Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, blowing a hole in the propaganda that the holy site is under attack and Israelis prevent Muslims from praying there. Every time Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tweets something positive in Arabic about an Arab leader, it reinforces that Israel is rooting for the success of the Arab world.

One of the reasons the Arab-Israeli conflict persisted for so long was the myth that it could be solved only after Israel and the Palestinians resolved their differences. That was never true. The Abraham Accords exposed the conflict as nothing more than a real-estate dispute between Israelis and Palestinians that need not hold up Israel’s relations with the broader Arab world. It will ultimately be resolved when both sides agree on an arbitrary boundary line.

The Biden administration is making China a priority in its foreign policy, and rightly so—one of Mr. Trump’s greatest legacies will be changing the world’s view of China’s behavior. But it would be a mistake not to build on the progress in the Middle East. Eliminating the ISIS caliphate and bringing about six peace agreements—between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan, Morocco and Kosovo, plus uniting the Gulf Cooperation Council—has changed the paradigm.

Will Bibi, the forever PM, win the Israeli election again?

Netanyahu has been dominant for so long that superstition may be the only way to imagine his departure — but those who want him gone should be careful what they wish for.

What thoughts crossed your mind during the Harry and Meghan interview? Did you find yourself guessing which royal it was who saw fit to speculate on the as-yet-unborn royal’s skin colour? Were you wondering who would play the Duchess when they come to re-enact the interview in The Crown, and whether it might actually be Meghan herself? In my case, and perhaps yours, the answers are yes and yes. But I suspect I am almost alone in the other train of thought that trundled through my head as Oprah ended her first hour of questions and dug into her second. 

I found myself remembering the last time I had witnessed such a high-stakes royal interview. Not the one with the sweatless Andrew, but rather the Panorama conversation with Princess Diana in 1995. I pictured where I was when I watched it, in my one room apartment in Washington, DC, a reporter in his twenties, just starting out. 

I thought of that time and the year that followed it, marvelling at how much the world has changed. It was Bill Clinton’s first term in office, Tony Blair was yet to win an election and no one had heard of Google. 

My mental eye scanned the landscape, looking for some part of the mid-90s universe that was familiar. Finally, it found it. 

In 1996, the prime minister of Israel was Benjamin Netanyahu.  A person can have moved from exuberant youth to deep middle age and have had Bibi in the background the whole time. 

Last year I made a radio documentary about the Rabin assassination a quarter century earlier. Whose voice do you hear on the archive recordings, as the then leader of the opposition? Why, Netanyahu’s of course. He’s become a permanent, apparently immovable fixture. 

Of course, there are other players who’ve been around longer, not least Harry’s grandmother. Among heads of government, Vladimir Putin has held power for 20 years, while Viktor Orban first became prime minister of Hungary in 1998. But Bibi got to the seat of power before both of them. 

The choice of examples is telling, because usually such epic longevity of tenure is a sign of democratic ill health, indicating that those in charge are competing on an electoral playing field tilted in their favour. And yet even Israel’s most trenchant critics would concede that its elections are robust and unfettered, with a proportional system that could fairly be described as hyper-democratic. 

I mention all this because Netanyahu is up for re-election yet again on March 23. Israel has a chance to prove that it is not Russia or Hungary, that the result is not pre-ordained and that those in power can lose. As tradition demands, I am following the ins and outs, scanning each poll, totting up the likely seats of the pro- and anti-Bibi camps. But all of that is overridden by a feeling that owes less to political analysis than it does to a fatalism born of weary experience. It’s the sense that, whatever happens, whatever the numerical permutations and political twists and turns, it is a law of nature that, just as the sun comes up tomorrow, Netanyahu will remain in the PM’s chair whose leather he must, by now, have worn to a smooth shine.

Over the years, I’ve invested my hopes in Ashkenazi former generals and in Mizrachi trade unionists, slick former TV hosts and lawyerly backroom operators, each time hoping they might be the ones to dislodge the forever PM. Maybe it would require several opponents at once? Blue and White tried that and failed. Perhaps a woman? Tzipi Livni came close but it was not enough. 

Now, like a football fan who thinks that if he watches the game from a different chair it might sway the result, I’m resorting to superstition. Maybe my past mistake was wanting it too much. So now I’m trying an experiment, imagining what it would be like if Netanyahu actually loses — by which I mean a defeat as it would be in any other country, where the loser does not simply re-emerge as the head of a new coalition or as “caretaker” prime minister a few weeks later but finally exits the stage. 

Is it possible that it would be…worse? Possible replacements for Bibi include Naftali Bennett, who once said no Palestinian state is foreseeable “for the next 200 years,” and Gideon Sa’ar, who wants to annex the West Bank and “formally abandon the idea of two states” and who reckons “the most urgent and important national task” facing the country is building more Jewish settlements in Jerusalem. I try to contemplate these two succeeding Netanyahu and tell myself that I should be careful what I wish for. 

Perhaps that will do the trick. If I go into this next round of Israeli elections trying to believe that I’ll miss Bibi when he’s gone, that he’s the devil we know, maybe the stars will move into a new alignment. Either that or Netanyahu will win again —  and he’ll still be there in another 25 years, when young Archie Windsor is on the sofa, pouring his heart out about a callously cold monarchy that, like the prime minister of Israel, cannot be budged. 

Jonathan Freedland is a columnist for the Guardian

Only Arabs in Israel have true democracy

A two-state solution remains not only possible, but the best route to a sustained and lasting settlement.

Which of the hundreds of millions of Arab citizens in the Middle East will be able to vote in free and fair elections this year?

It’s obviously not Syria. Even before a brutal civil war that killed half a million people and made almost half the population refugees, the country was a brutal dictatorship. Libya is in carnage and Yemen is still the world’s biggest humanitarian catastrophe.

Egypt is under a state of emergency and the President’s main opponents were banned from the last election. Whilst there are varying degrees of political development in the Arab monarchies, the unelected Monarch retains the final say in all of them.

The first election for nine years eventually took place in Lebanon in 2018, after being called off by the government three times. Elections also take place in Iraq but are marred by corruption and Baghdad comes down hard on anyone who really tries to exercise self-determination, as the Kurds found out with the military action and blockade they faced after their referendum in 2017.

Many won’t want to hear it, of course, but apart from Tunisia, the likelihood is that the only Arab citizens in the whole of the Middle East who will get to elect the people who run their country in free and fair elections live in Israel.

Almost 380 million Arab citizens live in two dozen countries stretching across five million square miles and the only ones who truly have a say in who runs their country are the 1.9 million in the tiny state of Israel.

Later this month, all nine million Israeli citizens, whatever their religion, race, ethnicity or heritage, will have exactly the same rights at the ballot box. All citizens of Israel vote on an equal basis and Arab voter turnout for the 2020 election reached 64.8%, its highest level in the last two decades.

Visit the Knesset and you will see one of the most diverse and disputatious legislatures in the world representing every shade of opinion from the far left to the extreme right.

The Joint List, made up of the four Arab parties, was the third largest grouping in the 23rd Knesset and its members were some of the government’s harshest critics. The alliance won a record 15 seats in last year’s election, and the Islamist Ra’am (United Arab List) party leader Mansour Abbas was elected deputy parliament speaker in May 2020.

It’s important to recognise that opinion is diverse, with many Arab-Israelis casting their votes for parties other than the Joint List. There are Arab candidates standing for most of the main Jewish-led parties — from the left-wing Meretz to Netanyahu’s Likud.

Arabs and Palestinian citizens have served in the Cabinet, in the civil service and on the Supreme Court. An Israeli Arab judge, George Karra, sent a former President of Israel, Moshe Katsav, to jail for seven years.

Recent polling found that most Israeli Arabs support the normalisation agreements between Israel and its Gulf partners, a promising sign.

Unfortunately, despite assurances that Palestinian elections will be held in May, it is unlikely that Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza will get to vote this year — so much for President Mahmoud Abbas’s promises.

Palestinians have not been able to vote for their president since Abbas won in 2005 and they have not been able to vote for members of the Palestinian Legislative Council since Hamas won the election the following year. Violence erupted, Abbas abolished constituency seats and banned parties that did not recognise the PLO which he leads.

President Abbas is now in the 17th year of a four-year term and repeated attempts to hold votes have failed. Less than a third of Palestinians expect the promised elections to be held.

The Israelis pulled out of Gaza in 2005 but no elections have taken place since Hamas took control the following year. Instead, they imposed a brutal dictatorship in which opponents face arrest and even torture or summary execution.

Imagine how different things could have been if the hopes raised by the Oslo peace process had been realised. Of course Israel bears a responsibility for that but so too do the leadership of the Palestinian Authority who turned down peace initiatives in 2000 and 2008 which would have led to the creation of a Palestinian state. Hamas, the de facto rulers of the Gaza Strip, seem more determined to wage war instead of negotiating a peaceful future for their 2 million Palestinians.

The situation in Gaza is desperate. But a two-state solution remains not only possible, but the best route to a sustained and lasting settlement.

I’ve spent thirty-five years campaigning for a two-state solution with an independent and viable Palestinian state, and want Britain to do everything it can to advance a peaceful and just resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict based upon security, peace and justice for both the Israeli and Palestinian peoples.

All Israeli citizens will be able to vote for leaders committed to that this month.

Lord Austin is the UK's Trade Envoy to Israel

Corbyn supporters threaten to ‘take care of’ Jewish activists

EXCLUSIVE: Group of hard-left Labour members is being investigated by police after it set up a network to discover the addresses of Jewish Labour activists

A group of Labour members, a number of whom have been suspended or expelled from the party, is being investigated by police after it set up an “anti-Zionist action network” to discover the addresses of Jewish Labour activists and “take care of those individuals”, the JC can reveal. 

The Labour in Exile Network (LIEN) vowed to unearth the “identity, location, activities and associations” of Jewish activists from the campaign group Labour Against Antisemitism (LAAS). 

The announcement came during the online launch event for LIEN, which was attended by 200 people and featured speeches by Jackie Walker and Marc Wadsworth, both of whom have been expelled from the Labour Party.

The group said it would target the Jewish members in order to take “action against the individuals”, referring to them as “Zionist trolls”.

Details of the “anti-Zionist action network” were posted on its website.
Jewish leaders have reported the organisation to both Kent and the Metropolitan Police.

Alex Hearn, director of LAAS, likened the comments to the language and tactics used by the “far right”, but said that Jewish members would not be “silenced or intimidated”.

He said: “LAAS is proud to have fought against hate and extremism on the left. Thanks to our hard work, people in the Labour Party know that publicly posting antisemitic material has consequences. 

“Threats to our members are a sign of our success. But this was unlike the ‘normal’ threats we have encountered.  

“It was part of a conference, reportedly attended by 200 people, and a working group was specifically created to target and silence members of LAAS because we report antisemitism. 

“Their intentions were proudly reported on their website. This type of activities and the language used are indistinguishable from the far right. This has been reported to the police, but rest assured we will not be silenced or intimidated. We will keep fighting for the right of Jewish people to have a safe space in the Labour Party.”

He added: “Unfortunately, what this episode also demonstrates is the long-term harm created by the Labour Party’s antisemitism crisis.”

Launching LIEN online last month, chairman Norman Thomas condemned the disciplinary process that had led to the suspension of 35 Labour officers since last October as a “kangaroo court” and “madness”. “We are not going away,” he said. “This is our party. We are still the many and they are still the few.”

Speaking to the JC, Mr Thomas said he did not know about the “anti-Zionist action network” mentioned on LIEN’s website, or that it had been reported to the police.

He said: “I know nothing about it. I don’t know about calling the police. If they are doing such a thing, then I think it is a stunt and a scam.”
On its website, LIEN pledges to “campaign against the recommendations of the Equality and Human Rights Commission report which demands that antisemitism cases are outsourced and which leads to a curtailing of free speech”. It calls for the party to ditch its commitment to the IHRA definition of antisemitism, and demands the reinstatement of all members “wrongly suspended or expelled”, especially former leader Jeremy Corbyn. 

LIEN has vowed to campaign in the May local elections only for candidates who “publicly commit themselves to oppose the purge against the left conducted by the current leadership”.
Mr Wadsworth was expelled in 2018 after being found guilty of breaching party rules. 

His expulsion came after he accused Ruth Smeeth MP at an antisemitism event of working “hand-in-hand” with the media to undermine Labour. 

A former Momentum vice-chairwoman, Ms Walker was expelled in 2019 for comments made during an antisemitism training session in which she criticised Holocaust Memorial Day for only commemorating Jewish victims.

A Met Police spokesman said: “Officers are in the early stages of reviewing the circumstances to determine if any offences have been committed.”

Israeli's firm seeks UK emergency approval for its ‘revolutionary’ anti-Covid spray

An Israeli CEO's biotech firm said on Sunday that it is seeking UK emergency approval for its “revolutionary” coronavirus-busting nasal spray. 
 
The Canadian company co-founded by Dr. Gilly Regev, called SaNOtize, says its nitric oxide spray was designed to “kill the virus in the upper airways, preventing it from incubating and spreading to the lungs.”
 
SaNOtize said on Sunday that a UK clinical trial of 79 patients found those given the spray had a 16 times greater reduction in their viral load than participants taking a placebo.
 
Their viral load - a measure of the amount of Covid-19 found in patients - dropped by more than 95 per cent within a day and by 99 per cent in 72 hours. 
 
Previous studies have suggested a link between viral loads and the severity of symptoms and transmission rate of the disease.
 
SaNOtize said no “adverse events” were recorded in the group, the majority of which was heavily infected with the UK variant of the virus.  
 
The trial, led by the Ashford and St Peter’s Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, began in January after earlier lab tests in the US found the virus to be over 99.9 per cent effective in killing the virus.
 
Dr Regev said the spray could “help get the world back on its feet” when combined with vaccine rollouts. 
 
“Now that the [spray] has been demonstrated to be safe and effective, we must move with urgency to get it into the hands of the public where it can help bring an end to the pandemic, accelerate a return to normality, and prevent future outbreaks of Covid-19 and its variants,” she said. 
 
Consultant medical virologist Dr Stephen Winchester, chief trial investigator, said the treatment “could be revolutionary.”
 
He said the spray could be “highly effective” in treating Covid-19 and reducing transmission.
 
“Our trial included patients with a variant of concern and high viral loads yet still demonstrated significant reductions in the levels of SARS-CoV-2, which could be critical in supporting vaccines, preventing future outbreaks and safely reopening economies