'Blair's departure won't change UK's stance toward Isael' | Jerusalem Post: "At the tail end of an hourlong interview with The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday in Britain's drab embassy in Tel Aviv, when the conversation shifted to the often shrill British attitudes toward Israel, UK Ambassador Tom Phillips advised not to 'forget the good things out there, even if there are some problems.'
True, there may be divestment and boycott calls, a critical academia, public opinion polls that show a general dislike among many Brits for Israel, and an often vicious press, yet Prime Minister Tony Blair has been good for Israel, there are strong people-to-people relations, and there is lively commerce between the two countries. Not all in British-Israeli ties, Phillips made abundantly clear, is bleak.
Which is obviously true. It is also obviously true that the job of the ambassador is to highlight the positive, which Phillips does with aplomb.
Phillips arrived as his country's envoy last August for a second go-around, having served as the deputy head of the British embassy from 1990 to 1993."