As a British Jew, I'd rather be running to bomb shelter in Israel than be in UK right now

Several times a day since the conflict with Iran erupted, I've been obsessively checking flight websites – since I'm stranded in a place I don’t want to be. Not because I’m one of the more than 100,000 Britons who have registered for UK government help to leave the Middle East. I’m actually in the UK – and want to go against the traffic.

Specifically to Israel, where I was due to make a long-awaited trip to see loved ones, attend the wedding of a friend's daughter and which, sadly, for now looks unlikely. Sounds crazy? Who would want to fly into a country battered by missiles and under existential threat – not only from Iran, but from its proxy aggressors across the region?

Especially since I know what it’s like. I was in Israel on October 7th and have visited many times since. Being woken by piercing sirens with only 15 seconds to sprint for shelter isn't pleasant. In fact it's bloody terrifying. And yet it hasn’t diminished the yearning to go.

Because I want to be in a place where the safety of the people comes before political calculation. Unlike here in the UK where a spineless, hyper-tactical Prime Minister shapes policy around saving his own miserable political skin.

When Donald Trump said yesterday that Keir Starmer was “no Winston Churchill” after the PM’s refusal to allow the use of UK bases for the initial US-Israel strikes on Iran, even the US President’s habitual instinct for exaggeration was short of the mark.

Britain’s Jewish community already feels exposed – thanks to leadership in thrall to hard-Left orthodoxy, and a political culture that has tolerated antisemitism.

Only this week, leading UK businessman Sir Michael Moritz declared that “Britain is an uncomfortable place for Jews today”. And while antisemitism exists in many societies – including California, where he spent much of his working life – the Cardiff-born billionaire points out that Britain now feels far more hostile.

Citing the deadly attack at the Heaton Park synagogue in Manchester last October – just a short distance from my home, and the place where I was married – as emblematic of this shift, along with the subsequent spike in antisemitic incidents nationwide.

Sir Michael has since applied for a German passport, something he is entitled to because of his family heritage. Given that his grandparents were murdered in the Holocaust, the fact that he feels compelled to take out what he describes as an “insurance policy” is profoundly telling.

Now, however, the vulnerability British Jews felt even before the Iran crisis has only intensified – and Sir Keir Starmer bears responsibility for that. Fight them on the beaches? He couldn’t rally a scuffle in an ice-cream van.

Starmer`s attempt to hide behind vapid invocations of international law – while Iran openly threatens UK bases and personnel – tells you everything you need to know about the man. (It’s not much.)

As Lord Wolfson, the former Attorney General, put it: “If the doctrines of international law prove unable to restrain Iranian terrorism and mass murder – and instead tie the hands of democracies, forcing them to stand by and watch – then international law will have failed.”

By contrast, in Israel – whatever your views on its politics – there is no ambiguity about leadership. Benjamin Netanyahu is unequivocal when it comes to Israel’s security and the safety of its people. Speaking to friends and family there, many of whom fiercely criticise him on other issues, this is the one area where they place their trust. What we have here makes the Liz Truss lettuce look positively admirable.

There is no pleasure in criticising Britain, nor in condemning a Prime Minister who has about as much in common with Churchill as a turkey has with a vegetarian Christmas lunch.

My late grandfather – who was choirmaster at the Heaton Park Synagogue – fled persecution at the turn of the last century to come to Britain. He was profoundly grateful for the refuge this country offered. He became naturalised, was conscripted, and served as a stretcher-bearer in the First World War.

There is still much to be proud of here. I see it in the kindness and decency of ordinary people – not least the outpouring of support after the Heaton Park attack. And this week, as news spread that brainless anti-Zionists are planning a door-knocking campaign in Manchester this weekend, I’ve received countless messages from people appalled by it..

But leadership matters – and on this we have none.

Which is why I keep checking those flights to Israel. I simply cannot wait to reinstate my visit to a country that understands the necessity of protecting its citizens and all those who visit.

Because at least there – even with missiles falling – I know who the enemy is.

Here, can I really say the same?