At a time when Israel faces open war and the Jewish people are under siege - from rockets, propaganda, and moral cowardice - a valiant voice in the West has refused to bend and apologize. That voice belongs to Tommy Robinson.
While others twist themselves into silence or flirt with those who celebrate Hamas murderers, Tommy speaks plainly about the dangers of radical Islam - the same ideology that sends children to die for terror and dreams of wiping Israel off the map. His voice carries clarity and courage at a time when Europe’s political and media classes are drenched in fear.
It has been our honor to host and welcome this man to Israel this week on his second visit.
In Britain, it has become impossible - and illegal - to tell the truth about jihad, antisemitism, or the ideological rot that has seeped into the country’s institutions. The establishment, from the BBC to the British Board of Deputies, speaks in the language of appeasement - carefully choosing words that comfort their critics rather than confront them.
Tommy Robinson stands in direct opposition to that culture of cowardice. He has risked his freedom, livelihood, and safety for the simple act of saying what every honest person knows: that Europe is being eaten alive by the same Islamist ideology that slaughtered Israelis on October 7.While countless “leaders” issue meaningless condemnations of antisemitism, they simultaneously give platforms to Palestinian activists who justify terrorism.
The UK Jewish establishment is pro 2-state solution as they pander weakly to a British government which is openly hostile to the Jewish state. Tommy Robinson does the opposite. He stands with Israel - loudly, unapologetically, and without calculation.
Moral Clarity and Jabotinsky’s Legacy
Ze’ev Jabotinsky, the great Zionist prophet and founder of Betar, wrote: “Silence is despicable. A man must shout the truth as he sees it, even if his voice trembles.”
That sentence could have been written about Tommy Robinson. Like Jabotinsky, he understands that truth - not diplomacy - is what saves nations. And sadly, while the Israeli government remembers the words of
Jabotinsky, Jewish leaders in the West have forgotten these words. Jabotinsky warned his generation that Jewish weakness and the illusion of safety among the gentile liberals of Europe would lead to catastrophe. He was right. And in our own time, Tommy Robinson has been warning Britain and Europe about the same spiritual disease - the refusal to recognize danger, the addiction to moral relativism, and the hatred of those who defend their homeland.
When Tommy speaks about radical Islam, about the grooming gangs that preyed on British girls, or about the streets of London flying the flags of Hamas, he speaks a man who has seen the decay firsthand. Like Jabotinsky before him, he is cursed for telling uncomfortable truths. And like Jabotinsky, he will one day be remembered as a man who saw the storm before the others even looked up.
The Cowardice of the Establishment
Jews are exhausted from hearing empty condemnations of antisemitism. We are tired of the moral pretense of those Jewish leaders who tweet “Never Again” while hosting rallies which feature the New Israel Fund and Yachad UK who are funding NGOs that criminalize Israeli soldiers.
The British Board of Deputies lectures Israel’s elected government, attacks and boycotts Israeli leaders including the brave Diaspora Minister Amichai Chikli, and spends its energy appeasing the progressive establishment rather than defending the Jewish nation.
Ask them this simple question:
Can they find even one mosque in Europe that prays for peace with Israel? One imam who recognizes the Jewish people’s right to their ancestral homeland.
Silence. And yet these same organizations criticize Tommy Robinson.
Tommy is not the problem. The problem lies with a diaspora elite that has traded courage for cocktail parties, and pride for political correctness. These leaders have become more comfortable condemning Israeli ministers than confronting Islamist hate on their own streets.
When Tommy Robinson walks through the shuk in Jerusalem or the streets of Tel Aviv, something extraordinary happens: Jews from every background - religious and secular, Israeli and diaspora - come forward to thank him. They understand something that London’s polite salons never will: that friendship is measured in courage, not credentials.
He embraced those who came to greet him, spoke with them, listened to their stories. He recognized what so many in the West refuse to see - that Israel’s enemies are the same enemies now terrorizing Europe.
As thousands gathered to hear him speak in Tel Aviv, a “left-wing” city, he was met not with hostility but with gratitude. Crowds clamored for selfies, shouted words of thanks, and waved Israeli flags. That is the real public, the authentic people - not the NGOs or the self-appointed spokesmen who have lost their moral compass.
Elon Musk, one of the world’s most influential voices pays for Tommy’s legal defense and has repeatedly amplified Tommy Robinson’s message - retweeting him almost daily during his visit to Israel. Musk, who has himself faced the wrath of the same progressive establishment, recognizes in Tommy a rare kind of integrity. Together, they have given voice to millions who are sick of censorship, sick of lies, and sick of the global hypocrisy that condemns Israel while excusing terror. Tommy’s media and voice outshine the hatred of the legacy media which is so anti-Israel.
British Israeli Relations at a Crossroads
The truth is that Britain’s relationship with Israel is at one of its lowest points in decades. While ordinary Britons admire Israel’s strength, the current UK government bends to pressure from pro-Palestinian Arab mobs, bureaucrats, and unelected civil servants. British Jews, led by their liberal institutions, have done little to help.
They publicly criticize Israel’s government, undermine its leaders, and lecture Jerusalem on morality - all while their own synagogues need police protection to hold a Shabbat service.
It is Tommy Robinson, not the Board of Deputies, who has stood up to defend Israel’s legitimacy and the Jewish people’s right to self-defense. It is Tommy Robinson who gathers hundreds of thousands of ordinary British patriots to stand against jihadism in the streets.
Someone who can bring those numbers out, who commands that kind of following, must be listened to. It is political malpractice for Israel to ignore him. The liberal Jewish establishment has lost its base; Tommy speaks to it.
The Power of Truth
In a world of political doublespeak, Tommy names the enemy. He rejects the fashionable moral fog that excuses terrorism as “resistance.” He exposes the hypocrisy of a Western elite that condemns Israel’s war for survival while funding jihadists abroad. There has been nothing concrete, nothing factual, that his critics can use to discredit him.
They cannot refute his words, so they attack his character.
They cannot deny his crowds, so they smear his name.
They cannot explain his popularity, so they call him dangerous.
But truth has a strange habit of surviving. Tommy Robinson’s movement has grown precisely because the establishment is terrified of it. His reach - now amplified globally through Elon Musk’s platform - connects him to audiences Israel must engage with working-class Britons, veterans, patriots, and people who believe in the values of courage, honor, and truth.
The Meaning of Friendship
Real friendship is revealed in crisis. When rockets fall, when terrorists murder, when the world condemns - that is when you discover who stands beside you.
Tommy Robinson has stood beside Israel. Not from comfort, but from conviction. He has paid a heavy price for that friendship - in his reputation, in his personal safety, in his peace of mind.
Tommy came to Israel to see, to listen, and to tell the truth. That is why Israeli leaders from across the conservative spectrum - Minister Amichai Chikli, House Speaker Amir Ohana, MK Simcha Rothman, Minister Gila Gamliel, and so many others - have welcomed him with open respect. They understand that in a world where truth itself is under assault, Tommy Robinson is an ally worth having.
The Jewish State and the Diaspora Divide
It must be said openly: Israel’s national interests are not aligned with those of the liberal diaspora institutions. These organizations - whether the ADL in America or the Board of Deputies in Britain - are hostile to the Jewish state's interests. Their policies and interests aren’t in line with the national interests of the Jewish state,
Their ideology of apology and their surrender to progressive dogma have damaged Jewish self-respect and alienated natural allies.
Tommy Robinson, by contrast, speaks the language of strength - the very language Jabotinsky taught a century ago when he said: “We do not have to apologize for anything. We are people as all other peoples; we do not have any intention to be better than the rest. As one of the first conditions for equality, we demand the right to have our own villains, exactly as other peoples have them.”
That quote, often misunderstood, perfectly applies to this moment. Israel, like any proud nation, chooses its friends according to principle, not popularity. And in an age of cowardice, it is Tommy Robinson who has shown more moral courage than entire institutions combined.
A new global alignment is forming - between Israel and the voices of Western civilization who refuse to kneel before radical Islam. It includes brave journalists, patriots, thinkers, and leaders who recognize that Israel’s war is not only Israel’s war. It is the front line of a global struggle for freedom. Tommy Robinson represents that awakening. His message - echoed by Elon Musk and others - is not hatred but defense of civilization. He reminds the world that when the Jewish state is attacked, it is the West itself that is under assault.
Israel realizes the need for strong allies, and that the future lies with those who speak plainly, without fear, and with moral clarity. That is where the new friendship must be built - on honesty, courage, and shared survival.
When Tommy Robinson walked through Jerusalem’s Machaneh Yehuda market, Jews of every stripe came forward to thank him. That image - of an Englishman vilified by his own country’s ruling elites, embraced by the people of Israel - captures something profound.
It is not just about one man. It is about the restoration of truth, of courage, and of pride. In this time of trial, when enemies gather and allies shrink away, the Jewish people know who their real friends are. Tommy Robinson is one of them. He is, in the truest Jabotinsky sense, a fighter - for civilization, for truth, and for the right of nations to defend themselves without apology.
Israel has always honored those who stand with her when it counts. For that reason, Tommy Robinson deserves not only thanks, but respect - the respect owed to a man who, in an age of cowardice, dared to be brave.
Daniel Levy is Director of Betar Worldwide, headquartered in Tel Aviv, Israel.