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On June 23, British electors will be asked which of two answers they prefer to the question: "Should the United Kingdom remain a member of the European Union or leave the European Union?" Voters will have to choose between the two.
If a majority indicate that they would rather leave the EU, the present government is pledged - though not legally bound - to set in motion the steps that would be needed to give effect to ''Brexit'' - the UK's orderly exit from the EU, which would probably take around two years to complete. Would Brexit be good for us Jews?
In 1975, on the initiative of Labour Prime Minister Harold Wilson, a referendum was held on whether the UK should remain a member of what was then called the European Economic Community. I voted with the majority to stay in the EEC. I did so on grounds that were fundamentally economic.
I felt that the fragile UK economy needed access to European markets but I also feared that this fragile economy might otherwise provide a fertile soil in which racism would grow and prosper, which would certainly not be good for the Jews. So I ignored the siren warnings of those - they included Tony Benn and Enoch Powell - who insisted that the EEC was basically a political project that must, sooner or later, result in the transfer of sovereignty from Westminster to Brussels. I took the short-term view. I voted to stay in.
Powell and Benn were right. The United Kingdom is now governed in large and ever-expanding measure by unelected apparatchiks in Brussels.
It's all about sovereignty, so I pray for the welfare of a nation
True, there is a Council of Ministers, on which the UK has a seat. But it's one seat out of 28. Prime Minister Cameron has defended this state of affairs as what is termed "shared sovereignty".But sovereignty shared is sovereignty lost.
Of course there are compensating advantages. The fact that the UK has lost control of its borders has meant that Jewish refugees fleeing daily occurrences of rampant and murderous racism in France can seek shelter here (as tens of thousands have done) without let or hindrance. They just present their EU passports to UK Border Force officers and are waved through. But so are the French racists.
I've heard it argued that the British voice in Europe is on the whole a voice sympathetic to Israel; that as a member state of the EU the UK is automatically a party to various agreements between the EU and Israel (covering not merely trade but also scientific and technological co-operation), and that Brexit would bring this sympathetic voice and these agreements to an end.
So it would. But other, bilateral agreements between Israel and the UK could easily be negotiated in their stead. Whether, at the present time, the British voice is on the whole sympathetic to Israel is of course a moot point. But British Jewry knows its way around Westminster and Whitehall. For more than 350 years, we have defended shechita and brit milah in these governmental contexts. Why should we not continue to do so?
I am mindful of the fact that Brexit would impact radically upon the balance of power within the EU and indeed within the UK. If we agree that the British voice in Europe is on the whole sympathetic to Israel and to other Jewish concerns, Brexit will of course still that voice. But there are other voices - not least that of Germany - that will continue to be heard.
A vote for Brexit might also precipitate another Scottish independence referendum since (rather oddly), the SNP favours independence from the UK but not from the EU. If Scotland did then vote to leave the UK, and given the SNP's ambivalence towards Jewish interests, this would surely serve to strengthen philosemitic sentiment in the Palace of Westminster.
Some Jewish business leaders certainly take the view that Brexit would be bad for business. But others do not share this concern.
When the Brexit referendum was announced, the pound fell against other currencies. This was actually good for business since British exports are now cheaper than before.
But, at the end of the day, Brexit comes down to a question of sovereignty. As a religious Jew, I pray for the welfare of the nation. And that is why I shall be voting for Brexit on June 23.
