Shimon Peres said England was “deeply pro-Arab … and anti-Israeli”,
adding: “They always worked against us.”
He added: “There is in England a saying that an anti-Semite is someone
who hates the Jews more than is necessary.”
His remarks, made in an interview on a Jewish website, provoked anger from
senior MPs and Jewish leaders who said the 87-year-old president had “got
it wrong”.
But other groups backed the former Israeli prime minister and said the number
of anti-semitic incidents had risen dramatically in the UK in recent years.
The controversy follows the furore last week over David
Cameron’s remark that Gaza was a “prison camp”, as he urged
Israel to allow aid and people to move freely in and out of the Palestinian
territory.
Mr Peres, a Nobel Peace Prize winner who is three years into his seven-year
term as president and was awarded an honorary knighthood by the Queen in
2008, said that England’s attitude towards Jews was Israel’s “next big
problem”.
“There are several million Muslim voters, and for many members of
parliament, that’s the difference between getting elected and not gettin… >>>
