Colonel Kemp in Chigwell

I went to see Colonel Richard Kemp - the former Commander of the British forces in Afghanistan and now staunch supporter of Israel - speak at a synagogue in Chigwell this evening. Kemp is every bit as impressive in person as indicated by his BBC interview during Operation Cast Lead and his famous UN speech. He spoke for about 45 minutes and then answered questions for about an hour. There were plenty of new insights for me, including the extent to which Israel has provided security, military and intelligence support to the UK (but which cannot be admitted publicly by the Government because of what he sees as their blatant appeasement of Islamic extremists). When asked why he supported Israel so passionately he said (after joking about being paid by Mossad) because it was the right thing to do because his extensive professional dealings with the Israel Defence Forces - and his knowledge of similar threats faced by British forces in Iraq and Afghanistan - meant he KNEW that the accusations against them were false; when he heard the libellous accusations made against the IDF during Cast Lead he said that he felt compelled to counter the lies just as he would if the same lies had been made against the British Army.

Other interesting nuggets:

• When he was asked by the BBC for the interview above he said they were assuming he was going to do the standard 'blame Israel for everything' expert analysis. As you can see the airhead interviewer was completely flummoxed and taken by surprise that anybody would actually defend Israel. He has never been invited back by the BBC.
• He has been in Israel discussing a PR campaign in which he plans to help enroll military experts from around the world to share their (similar) experiences about working with the IDF and their similar opinions on the way they deal with the threats they encounter.
• With Liam Fox now forced out, the Government has lost one of the only members of the  Cabinet who understands the threat Israel faces. Indeed the rest are adopting a policy of appeasement against the Islamic threat that he compared to the 1930s appeasement of the Nazis.
• Israel has the capability to pull off a conventional military strike to thwart Iran's nuclear ambitions, but that unless there was a regime change in Iran that country would never cease its ambition to obtain nucelar weapons.
• In response to my (loaded) question about his thoughts on the most incompetent politician in Israel's history (Ehud Barak) being Defence Minsiter at such a critical time, he declined to answer on 'diplomatic grounds' but it was clear that he shared my views and concerns. 
• He has been the victim of anti-semitic abuse - despite of course not being Jewish. 
• In speaking about the discredited UN Golstone Report on the Gaza war he ridiculed Col. Desmond Travers - a former senior officer in the Irish army - who was the only military expert among the four members of the Goldstone Commission. He said he found it hard to understand why the UN chose as its military expert somebody from an army that had never fought a war. Travers - whose contempt for Israel was already on the record after he had falsely accused them of killing Irish UN troops in Lebanon, apparently stated in his report that Hamas had never used mosques to store weapons. When he was asked what his evidence was for this claim he said "well I wouldn't"