Israel and I
From Melanie Phillips Sir: Michael Leggatt (Letters, 29 December) claims that I said on Question Time that if there were war between Israel and the UK, I would leave the UK, and that this shows that I am more loyal to my religion than to my country. This is a profound and alarming misunderstanding of my position. As I said on the programme, it is inconceivable that Britain and Israel would go to war against each other. If. for the sake of argument, Israel were to launch an unprovoked rocket attack on London, I would not support it. If, equally hypothetically, Britain were to launch an unprovoked war against Israel, I might feel that the climate in Britain had become so hostile towards Jews in general that I might choose to emigrate to Israel. If I did so, I would become an Israeli citizen and so the question of double loyalty would not arise. To say that fleeing hostility in this way to a nation offering refuge is to put religion above country is grotesque.
Melanie Phillips
London W12
Previous page
