JJP lobbies MPs about Israeli attack on Iran
On 23 June 2025, JJP wrote to all MPs urging them to demand that the UK does not assist Israel in its aggressive war against Iran, either offensively or defensively. We said the UK must not be sucked into this war by Donald Trump’s ill-judged, narcissistic intervention. All efforts should now be concentrated on working with like-minded countries to secure a ceasefire as soon as possible. Most important, we explained it is essential to understand the long-term context of this war.
Our letter is below
Dear MP, 23 June 2025
We are Jews for Justice for Palestinians. With some 2,800 members, we are the largest Jewish peace group in the UK or Europe. Our website is at jfjfp.com.
We are writing to urge you to demand that the UK does not assist Israel in its aggressive war against Iran, either offensively or defensively. We must not be sucked into this war by Donald Trump’s ill-judged, narcissistic intervention. All efforts should now be concentrated on working with like-minded countries to secure a ceasefire as soon as possible. It is essential to understand the long-term context of this war.
Iran was abiding by the terms of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), signed in 2015, for a full year after Donald Trump took the United States out of the agreement in 2018 and reimposed US nuclear-related sanctions. Iran only stopped abiding by the terms in 2019, when American pressure stopped western countries buying Iranian oil as part of Donald Trump’s “maximum pressure” policy.
Since then, Iran has been enriching uranium beyond the stipulated limits for civilian use, although not to the level necessary for a weapon, and also breaking the terms of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in other ways. Nevertheless, the remedy is for the Board of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to report the issue to the Security Council, not for Israel to attack Iran.
In March 2025, the American intelligence community assessed that Iran is not building a nuclear weapon, nor had a decision been taken to restart the nuclear weapons program suspended in 2003. The assessment is also that it would take up to a year to create the required delivery system. Those assessments have not changed.1 Therefore, despite Iran being very nearly able to produce enough fissile material for a bomb, there is no justification of urgency for the Israeli attack.
The repeated Israeli claim that Iran having a nuclear weapon is an “existential threat” to Israel does not stand up to examination. It is well known that Israel has had nuclear weapons since the 1960s. It is widely believed to possess 90 plutonium-based nuclear warheads and to have produced enough plutonium for 100-200 weapons. It also has the “nuclear triad” delivery capability of aircraft, submarine-launched cruise missiles and Jericho ballistic missiles.2 One would have to believe that Iranian leaders are certifiably insane to believe they would risk a nuclear first strike against Israel.
Israel’s motive in being determined to be the only nuclear power the Middle East stems directly from its determination to continue occupying Palestinian land, prevent the emergence of a Palestinian state, and eventually create Greater Israel. That policy has created Palestinian resistance, sometimes terrorist attacks, two intifadas and several wars against Gaza. The possibility of Arab countries, or Iran, being motivated to attack Israel in support of the Palestinians is ever-present. Israel therefore wants to hold the whip-hand of being the sole nuclear power in the Middle East so that it will never have to negotiate with the Arab countries or Iran, or agree to end the occupation.
Iran’s policy has always been to support Palestinian resistance to Israel, and therefore to support Hamas and Hezbollah. The key to Iranian acceptance of Israel lies in Hamas accepting Israel. Hamas leaders offered that several times, providing Israel accepts a Palestinian state in the occupied territories. The last offer was made by Khaled Meshal, then the recognised head of Hamas, in April 2008.3 In 2017, Hamas created the new Principles and Policies document, which explicitly accepts that there can be a separate Palestinian state along the 1967 lines. It also, inter alia, identifies Israel only with Zionists, not Jews.4
The right-wing Israeli governments in power since March 2009 never responded to either initiative. The Hamas attack on 7th October 2023 was a war crime and a crime against humanity as it was mainly against Israeli civilians, but its roots lie in that refusal to respond and in the five previous assaults on Gaza. Eventually, the hard-line faction in Hamas gained ascendency. As António Guterres, Secretary General of the United Nations, said, to the Security Council on 24 October, “the deadly assault by Hamas did not happen in a vacuum… the Palestinian people have been subjected to 56 years of suffocating occupation…”
The entirety of the dangerous situation we are now in – the Hamas assault on 7 October, Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza, the war between Israel and Iran, America’s entry into the war, and whatever unforeseen consequences may yet occur – has its roots in Israel’s long repression of the Palestinian people. Very strong sanctions will be necessary to compel Israel to change course. The few sanctions against individuals have been ineffective.
Sanctions should include suspending tariff-free status of all Israeli imports; immobilising all Israel’s foreign exchange reserves held in London, as has been done to Russia; suspending all arms exports to Israel; restrictions on business services; and refusing entry to all Israeli government ministers and senior military officers. Continued failure to apply them will badly erode the credibility of the U.K.’s commitment to international law, perhaps fatally.
We therefore urge you to demand the government both works urgently for a ceasefire and works in the long term to impose sanctions on Israel until it ends the occupation.
Yours sincerely,
Arthur Goodman
Parliamentary and Diplomatic Officer
Notes
1. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/19/us/politics/iran-nuclear-weapons-assessment.html
2. https://armscontrolcenter.org/fact-sheet-israels-nuclear-arsenal/
3. https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna24235665
4. https://digitalprojects.palestine-studies.org/jps/fulltext/214551