Your Royal Highness:
On 20th February you said that “too many have been killed” in the Israel-Hamas war and you expressed your desire “for the fighting to end“.
The statement was widely interpreted as a call for a ceasefire. You did not say that “the fighting should end as soon as possible, provided that all hostages are released and once the Hamas terror army threatening to repeat the October 7 atrocities is dismantled”. The statement was widely interpreted – therefore – as a call for a ceasefire that would be premature in the view of the Israeli government.
I have no problem with you entering into controversial issues but you need to ensure that you do not take sides. On this occasion you failed. You cannot rely on the Foreign Office for unbiased advice regarding Israel. You and your staff need to do your own Due Diligence. If you are not confident of knowing all the facts, best to stay silent.
The fact that your statement was praised by the Chief Rabbi and the Board of Deputies is irrelevant. The Board of Deputies (of which I was a member for 6 years) no longer represents the body of pro-Israel Jews in the UK. The Chief Rabbi was simply naively wrong, or maybe felt obliged to defer to Royalty.
After the appalling atrocities on 7 October, Israel has the right to do what is needed to eliminate the threat of a recurrence and to rescue the hostages. (In the night of 11/12 February the IDF rescued 2 hostages). You need to know that the IDF achieves a record low proportion of 2:1 of civilian to combatant casualties – a record low in asymmetric warfare. No other army drops leaflets to warn people of military operations. The British certainly did not, in raids on Germany in WW2.
Your statement was made before a visit to the Red Cross. You heard Pascal Hundt speak by video from Gaza. According to the BBC you were told that “the Red Cross was ready to help with the release of hostages”. You need to know that this appears to be a barefaced lie: the Red Cross/Red Crescent have done nothing to help the hostages. See Melanie Phillips here. She writes ‘it [Red Cross/Red Crescent] has failed to visit the Israeli hostages. It has failed to transfer to the hostages the medication that some of them urgently need, despite the promise of such a transfer being in the terms of the last ceasefire. ‘
Sincerely
Jonathan Hoffman MA (Oxon), M Sc (LSE).
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