Matthew Gould: Britain’s ‘Fair and Balanced’ Man in Tel Aviv

On July 22, 2010, Matthew Gould, Britain’s then-Ambassador designate to Israel, was the guest speaker at anevent sponsored by the Leeds Zionist Federation and the North East branch of the British Israel Chamber of Commerce:

Ambassador Gould spoke to over 60 local business people at a breakfast where he said that Israel was well placed to be an economic powerhouse in the Middle East. As the first Jewish Ambassador to Israel he felt he had an important role to play. He said that the Foreign Office was not full of arabists as is often perceived and he was looking forward to spending his four years in Israel. After a full day meeting various business groups in the city he addressed over 150 supporters of the LZF, both Jewish and non Jewish on his hopes and aspirations on taking up his new posting. This was also the first meeting of the Leeds Hasbarah centre, a joint venture between the LZF and the resident community Shaliach, Gilad Amit. The talk was followed by a lengthy Q & A. The overall impression was that here was a British Ambassador whom we felt will be fair and balanced in his deliberations although it was made clear that the Ambassador’s job in Israel primarily to serve British interests. A collection was made after the meeting toward a project for young people from Leeds to visit Poland and also in support of sending packages to Lonely Soldiers in the IDF.