In the corner of his grand office near Kensington Gardens, west London, Mark Regev, Israel’s new ambassador to Britain, keeps a black-and-white photograph of his father as a schoolboy.
“He was born in Germany in 1931,” Regev said last week, bringing out the photo. “It was not a good year to be born, nor a good place.”
The image depicts a group of Jewish children smiling at the camera during an outing in the city of Magdeburg on the River Elbe.
Regev’s blond father, Martin, then no more than eight years old, stands bare-chested, with his head slightly cocked, hands on hips.
“He was one of only three children in this picture who survived,” Regev said quietly.
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As the son of a Holocaust survivor the horrors of anti-semitism are deeply personal for Regev. He changed his surname from Freiberg because it sounded “very German”.
Now, less than a month into his new role as Israel’s man in London, Regev has chosen to use his first interview to enter the anti-semitism row that has engulfed the Labour party. Before being forced by colleagues to announce an inquiry this weekend, Jeremy Corbyn had stated Labour did not have a problem with anti-semitism.
While pointing to a “long tradition of friendship” between Israel and the UK’s Labour movement, the ambassador appeared unconvinced .
“I have no doubt that part of the left is in denial,” said Regev, 56, who previously served as chief spokesman to Binyamin Netanyahu and remains close to the Israeli prime minister.
“They say ‘anti-semitism, that’s the right, that’s the fascists’. That’s a cop-out. It doesn’t stand up to serious historical examination.”
“The idea that ‘Ooh, I’ve got a degree and I go to plays and therefore I can’t be anti-semitic’. No. That’s a myth. It’s another cop-out
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Citing radical “luminaries” such as Pierre-Joseph Proudhon and Mikhail Bakunin, Regev said: “It’s true that the left has a proud tradition of fighting anti-semitism, but the left also has a history of anti-semitism.”
When asked if Corbyn needed to be more vocal in condemning elements of his own party, Regev was scathing. “Anti-semitism is not a Jewish problem,” he said.
“Anti-semitism should concern everyone. When it does raise its head it should be condemned across the board. And failure to condemn has to be in itself condemned.”
Regev’s anger uncharacteristically boiled over onto Twitter last week after Naz Shah, Labour MP for Bradford West, was suspended for suggesting Israel should be moved to America as the “solution” to the Palestinian conflict.
“What is needed is a willingness to make peace with Israel and not delusional fantasies about a Middle East without Israel,” Regev tweeted.
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Although he told The Sunday Times that he can still “do business” with Corbyn, Regev made a point of praising David Cameron’s “outspoken and unequivocal condemnation” of anti-semitism. “That’s leadership,” he added.
Given his previous incarnation as Israel’s chief spinner, it is perhaps inevitable that Regev has found himself drawn into the controversy. Until recently he was a fixture on news bulletins — sometimes appearing night after night to defend Israeli military action in Gaza.
Unlike previous Israeli government spokesmen, Regev is a native English speaker, having been raised in Melbourne, Australia — where his father ended up after the Second World War. Regev once admitted: “Usually when you see me it’s bad news.”
Critics have described him as a “propagandist”. At one point Facebook groups sprang up with titles such as “I want to punch Mark Regev very hard”. But his fans regard him as a “one-man Israeli defence force”.
When Regev moved to Israel from Australia in 1982, he worked on a kibbutz and later entered academia, where he changed his surname. Regev translates roughly as “small clod of earth” in Hebrew and his own political roots are in the socialist tradition. He used to read the New Statesman, the British left-wing magazine. Regev started his diplomatic career in 1990 and has served in Hong Kong, Beijing and Washington . Speaking with an Australian twang, he is at pains to point out that it is not anti- semitic to criticise Israeli government policy, particularly in relation to the Palestinians.
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But he believes anti-Zionism is fast becoming code for anti-Jewish sentiment.
“You see in certain circles this demonisation of Israel; that Israel is the epitome of evil in the world,” he said.
“In the past anti-semitism has focused on individual Jews. Today modern anti-semitism focuses on the collective Jew — that Israel, the Jewish state, is inherently evil and poison.”
The middle classes are not exempt from such views, according to Regev. “They say anti-semitism is the disease of the uncouth and the uncultured; the hooligan. The idea that ‘Ooh, I’ve got a degree and I go to plays and therefore I can’t be anti-semitic’. No. That’s a myth. It’s another cop-out.”
The recent election of Malia Bouattia, the first black female Muslim president of the National Union of Students, may attest to this. She has been accused of anti-semitic remarks, including referring to Birmingham University as a “Zionist outpost”.
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While Israeli-Palestinian talks remain “stuck”, Regev insisted that Netanyahu genuinely “wants peace”, adding: “Not a Chamberlain-style ‘peace in our time’, but a real peace, a secure peace, an enduring peace.”
He described the threat from Isis as “the challenge of our times”. But he also indicated that its rise in Syria — and the rise of Shi’ite militancy from Iran and Hezbollah — have led to other Arab states in the region, notably Saudi Arabia, beginning to re-evaluate their relationships with Israel.
“The same people who threaten them . . . are the same forces that threaten Israel. We are still at an early stage of this process, but this has inside it the possibility of hope.
“Israel is talking to more Arab countries than ever before and maybe we can create a regional atmosphere that will be conducive to moving ahead on the Palestinian track.”
Regev’s father died last year, before he could see his son switch roles from combative PR man for Israel to one of its most prominent envoys.
Will he now have to rein himself in? “I’ve always tried to be measured,” said Regev.
“But when I thought there was an unfair accusation made, I would defend my country. And, of course, in this role I will continue to do so.”