The former chairman of the Jewish Leadership Council, Sir Mick Davis, is launching an international network to advance Israel’s founding ideals which he believes have been under attack from the Netanyahu government.
Davis, who made aliyah four years ago, is working with another British oleh, Mike Prashker, founding director of Merchavim — an NGO which promotes citizenship and social cohesion in Israel — to establish the London Initiative.
Their new group will champion what they say are three “interlocking imperatives”: strengthening liberal democracy, furthering fairness in society and pursuing peace with the Palestinians.
According to their website, the two co-founders aim to set up a network of 360 “accomplished individuals from Israel, world Jewry and other outstanding international change-makers”.
Its name is taken from its inaugural event, a retreat in London planned to take place next month.
In a hard-hitting article in this month’s edition of the Bicom journal Fathom, Prashker and Davis wrote that “15 years of almost uninterrupted Netanyahu governments have represented an increasingly unbridled assault on all the essential elements” of Israel’s Declaration of Independence.
It has been “a deeply painful and destructive period that has tarnished Zionism, with the current government being the most distressing and damaging to-date,” they said.
“The Declaration’s aspirational vision of Israel, as a national homeland for the Jewish people, delivering ever greater fairness and equality to all its citizens and striving for peace with its neighbours has been badly set-back.”
Co-founder of the London Initiative Mike Prashker
While the Hamas attack 15 months ago had brought a surge of support to Israel, “over time the savage realities of the continuing conflict, the widespread destruction of Gaza, growing settler violence, the continuing erosion of Israel’s democratic foundations and a range of anti-pluralistic policies, reinforce long-term trends that should alarm every Zionist.
“Namely, deteriorating relations between Israel and world Jewry and the free-fall of Israel’s international standing among most Western allies and democracies.”
As “passionate liberal Zionists, we remain committed to advancing Israel towards the lofty vision of the Declaration of Independence,” they said, arguing that their liberal values were shared by millions of Israelis and Jews around the world.
The crisis in Israel before October 7 had not gone away, they maintained.
“The government of Benjamin Netanyahu, which includes outspoken and proudly racist, expansionist, messianic, homophobic and misogynistic elements – elements he has legitimised at the heart of Israeli politics – has not revised its ambitions,” they said.
Many Israelis were struggling to “come to terms with how far we have travelled from our foundational values,” they said.
The shift was such that it was “currently more acceptable in widening circles for a government minister to advocate ‘voluntary emigration’ and the resettlement of Gaza than it is for an opposition leader to assert that secure peace with the Palestinians is in Israel’s strategic interests.”
Arguing that even talking about peace had become “politically taboo”, they said that the London Initiative would not propose a specific solution to the conflict with the Palestinians but emphasise that “security and peace are themselves interconnected, not, as some now suggest, mutually exclusive”.
Prashker told the JC this week, “We’re looking forward to our first retreat that will bring together over 50 senior leaders from Israel, world Jewry and international allies. It’s an important step in building our network of 360 leaders.
“The experiences of Israelis and Jews around the world since October 7 have shown how interconnected we are and now is the right time to strengthen meaningful partnership – as both a Zionist goal and a key strategy – to moving Israel and the Jewish people back on track towards the vision of the founders.”
Senior advisers to the London Initiative listed on its website include Board of Deputies chief executive Michael Wegier and chair of the Anne Frank trust Nicola Cobbold.
