Peres: Israel concerns lost on Brits

The Israeli president has said his claims of anti-Semitism against Britain were out of regret that some Britons failed to recognize what he called Tel Aviv’s concerns.

Shimon Peres had been quoted last week by the Jewish website Tablet as saying that the British people and their government were “deeply pro-Arab and anti-Israeli.”

The comments apparently served as a response to UK Prime Minister David Cameron’s earlier comment on the Israeli siege of the Gaza Strip, calling the populated enclave as a “prison camp.”

In defense of the remarks, Peres’ office said they had been triggered by the “concern that some people in Britain do not fully appreciate the difficulties of facing an onslaught of terror…as Israel does,” referring to alleged rockets attacks from Gaza, British newspaper The Daily Telegraph reported on Sunday.

Israel took Gaza under all-out ground, aerial and naval bombardments at the turn of 2009, claiming the offensive was to counter projectiles launched from the coastal sliver which seldom leave any casualties or considerable damage to property.

The attacks killed more than 1,400 Palestinians and inflicted a damage of USD 1.6 billion on Gaza’s economy.