We sat in the small and well-kept backyard at the home of Israel’s
ambassador in London, Ron Prosor. Light rain was falling
intermittently, leaving behind it fresh English air, yet the
expressions around the table remained grim. The conversation focused on
the British media’s takeover by anti-Israel elements.

Prosor is a large and smiling man, with a soft base voice, but
his smile was gone when he spoke of the way he is being welcomed by
pro-Palestinian protestors every time he arrives for a lecture at a
British university.

You need to read some of the things they write about us here, he sighed. I don’t even know how to start responding to them.

Don’t respond, I said. Sue them.

One of those present, an influential London attorney, raised his head: What do you mean sue them? He said.

What’s so complicated? I replied. Just like they threaten to
sue IDF officers, we need to sue them. Every journalist who refers to
us as “war criminals” or “child killers” needs to know that the next
day his newspaper will be slapped with a million pound lawsuit on
behalf of the State of Israel.

What will we gain from it? Someone else asked.

Newspapers don’t like lawsuits, I said. It takes time, it costs
money, the paper’s insurance company raises their premium, stockholders
are wondering why they got into this mess to begin with, and the editor
in chief is infuriated after he discovers that he needs to waste two
days on testifying in respect to an article that he didn’t even read.

The press won’t come out against us? Prosor asked.

There is no such thing as “the press,” I said. This is the most
competitive profession in the world, and everyone is just waiting to
see the others fall. Do you really think that The Independent cares
whether we sue The Guardian? They’ll be happy about it.

And who will represent us? Asked someone else.

Him, I gestured at the lawyer sitting with us, and a hundred
others like him. If the Jewish people has one reservoir that will never
run out, it’s lawyers. Every Western capital boasts at least five
successful Jewish law firms, and most of them will be glad to represent
the State of Israel against the new anti-Semitism.

The lawyer in the group suddenly looked up. It will work, he said. I’m willing to take London upon myself.