Isaac Herzog MK addresses the UK crowds

Shalom to all of you from Jerusalem our eternal capital, our beloved city, the city of peace. From Jerusalem to London, we say 'shalom', shalom to the Chief Rabbi, shalom to the heads of the community, shalom to the distinguished leaders of the community, to all of you and of course to our friend Ed Balls the Minister in the British Government who has been so kind in his words to us. Shalom and welcome to all of you.

Yes, raise your flags, we want to see those flags. We want to see the sea of flags, yes! We want to see the Magen David in Trafalgar Square, something which our parents have dreamt of for generations. Indeed, Israel was born here, Zionism took on here with Chaim Weizman, with the leaders of the Jewish Community, a great community, with the philosophers and thinkers. A hundred years ago a young British politician, Winston Churchill in Manchester saw the Jewish Community and said 'this is an incredible community' and indeed today it is an incredible community. Yes, we bless you!

I have come from Jerusalem with a lot of pain and challenges in front of us. Today the Israeli Government has decided to agree to an agreement to release our soldiers from Lebanon. Last my night I placed my vote by proxy saying 'Yes' in favour of bringing our sons and brothers home, live or dead and together with you we pray, we pray and we work hard as much as we can to bring our brother, Gilad Shalit back from Gaza to his family. Yes, yes, yes, yes!

But this only speaks of our challenges, we have great challenges in front of us. And in each generation, we have to meet those challenges. And the threats are great and the success is great and we are indeed a proud country, a flourishing country, a proud democracy, multicultural, and yet as we all know there is a looming threat from the east, from a coalition of hatred from Teheran which we all must challenge together and we must all fight together. This calls for the world community at large and its leaders to be strong enough and to be proud enough to be forthcoming and demanding enough and here in the landmark that portrays bravery and courage in British history, from here we say "We will not cave in, we will stand together and we will overcome this challenge together. We will raise our flags, yes".

Together we will stand and fight, together we will meet the challenges wherever they are, together we will bring Aliyah, we will be proud of Israel, we will meet those who castigate us , we will challenger those that blasphemise us even in some quarters of British public life.

They have no clue what Israel is all about. They do not know what Israel is all about. They have no clue about Israeli democracy, right of free speech, Israeli values, Jewish values, they have no clue about our success in arts and culture and agriculture, education, sciences, technology. They have no clue what is vision of a country that was born out of battle, that has brought over people from 100 countries just like in a biblical prophecy to create one of the most exciting and proud countries in the world.

So thank you, yes, thank you very much. Raise your flags and together we will stand.

G-d bless the Queen, G-d save the Queen, G-d bless the people of Israel; G-d bless the State of Israel. Thank you.