By Lloyd Levy
LONDON, England — In the UK, we recently had a General Election, in which the Conservative Party won an absolute majority. This is the first all Conservative Government for 20 years, and is on the whole supportive of Israel’s security concerns. The last Government, which was a Conservative/Liberal coalition, restricted arms supplies to Israel at the behest of the Liberal partners. I understand that now the Liberals have been defeated, the arms controls have been lifted. Likewise the Conservative Government is very aware of the threats to the Jewish community from extremists.
This swing to the “right,” is being counter balanced by the opposition Labour Party swinging to the extreme “left”. The Labour Party is increasingly taking on a very anti Israel tone, even under its previous Jewish leader Ed Miliband. There is a Labour leadership campaign at the moment, and one of the candidates is Jeremy Corbyn. Indeed, many people think he may win the leadership election. Mr Corbyn has a long history, going back very many years, of vocally supporting the Palestinians, supporting the Gaza Blockade Convoys, and generally holding opinions that many would consider to be unhelpful to Israel. My opinion is that it would be a disappointment for British Jewry if he were to lead the Labour Party. So that is something to keep an eye out for over the next few weeks.
The Greek Tragedy is hopefully the beginning of the end, of the European Union. It is now clear to most thinking people, that Germany has taken over Europe, this time without a shot being fired. I only have data from 2010 , but in that year Germany had the largest population 82 million, against the UK 62 million, and France also approx 62 million. German GDP was 3.35 trillion dollars, UK 2.25 trillion dollars, and France 2.6 trillion dollars. More importantly, Germany has a massive trading surplus with the rest of Europe, which means that money from the other countries flows into Germany. As an illustration, I would say that virtually every electrical and mechanical appliance in our house is made in Germany.
What this means is that the wealth of other countries is flowing out to Germany. The German surplus then finances the loans to the poorer countries, such as Greece. This then enables Germany to dictate to these smaller countries. The Greeks, whatever their faults, have effectively been forced to hand over their country’s assets to German control, which will then be sold to pay off the largely German banks and institutions. Greece is essentially being stripped bare, and its people forced to emigrate. Some people may think it is somewhat akin to the German policy in Eastern Europe in the Second World War, when the occupied countries were stripped bare, and the populations deliberately starved to death .
This Greek situation is a “eureka” moment . The never ending poverty, suffering, and unemployment that is being inflicted on the Greeks is surely immoral. It will enormously encourage the movement in UK to exit the EU, and the sooner the better in my opinion.
There is no specific Jewish interest in the Greek situation, other than it is arguably not pleasant to see Germany ruling Europe, so soon after the Holocaust and all the lives lost in trying to curb German power. As far as Israel is concerned, the situation has little immediate impact. Germany is very supportive in many ways, and the Israeli navy sources its submarines and frigates from Germany, at very discounted prices. Greece also, apparently has a defense pact with Israel, which I assume relates to the defense of the oil rigs in the Eastern Mediterranean.
I don’t wish to comment at this time on the Iran nuclear agreement, other than the saying “ Israel has been thrown under the bus,” springs to mind.
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Levy is a businessman who divides his time between London, England and Eilat, Israel. You may comment to him at lloyd.levy@sdjewishworld.com