A Small Island Man

Letter to my MP Pippa Heylings regarding the proposed proposed £2 billion, 15-year contract with Israeli Elbit Systems Dear Pippa Heylings, I’m sorry to write again so soon, but I feel compelled to ask you to speak out against the proposed £2 billion, 15-year contract with Israeli Elbit Systems UK to run the Army’s Collective Training Service. Please do all you can to oppose this. For clarity: I am no supporter of Hamas. I am also a hereditary Jew. But I believe Israel is engaged in ethnic cleansing, and the ongoing devastation in Gaza proceeds as if genocide were an acceptable consequence. I cannot reconcile that with Britain awarding such a contract. My personal and business taxes will help fund this. Whatever obligations the government cites, morality must come first. I ask you, as my MP and representative, to raise this urgently, publicly and in Parliament, pressing for the contract to be halted or reviewed against our commitments to international humanitarian law and basic decency...

If my children committed murder or rape, I would still love them. I would stand by them as their parent. But I would condemn, not condone, their actions. I would see them face justice for what they had done. Their punishment and shame would be greater for being mine too, for they are part of me. Yet there would be no compromise on my morality. That is what real loyalty is, love that refuses to hide wrongdoing in the shadows. But loyalty can also become a kind of blindness. When our sense of identity is tied so closely to a cause, we can find ourselves defending the indefensible, even when the truth is plain for all to see. Admitting what is in front of us feels like admitting a part of ourselves is wrong, and so we look away. So, search your heart. Where do your loyalties truly lie? Perhaps you feel them being tested. Are you sure your moral compass still points to what is right, or has it been deflected by allegiance to a flag, a religion, or a cause now engaged in something you can n...