Ed McGuinness: Israel has the blueprint for how you achieve stronger defence and growth

Ed McGuinness is a founder of Conservatives in the City, and a former parliamentary candidate.

What links the Romans greatest feat of engineering in Britain and the 40th President of the United States?

Hadrian’s Wall, an archeological treasure trove and Duke of Edinburgh awards magnet, stands as an enduring symbol of the Emperor’s doctrine of peace through strength. The same doctrine was the lynchpin of Ronald Reagan, the Cold War winning president’s own foreign policy. It is also the strategic principle of what has allowed Israel to thrive and survive for over sixty years, surrounded by enemies on three sides and a clear blue sea on the other.

But what lessons can we learn from our Middle-Eastern ally?

Lesson One: Defence is Survival

A nation which lies in rubble is no nation at all.

Israel’s nascent leadership recognised this and between 1960-80 the country spent between 8-19% of its GDP on its Defence – winning existential wars as a result. The Iron Dome Air Defence system is a emblem of Defence spending preserving the existence of a nation – standing sentry over Israeli cities and demonstrably integrated into Israel’s self-reinforcing Defence-Growth strategy – seeded by Israeli taxpayer money and developed and built by major Israeli Defence companies.

The UK is not in the same geostrategic position as Israel, but their principle and ambition of an integrated Air Defence System, capable of intercepting thousands of missiles, pales in comparison to our Typhoon-based Quick Reaction Force and handful of deployable ground-based air defence units. The Iron Dome is but a single illustration, of many, of how necessity is the mother of invention. It is therefore understandable that Israel’s martial capability is at permanent warp speed. And we must now recognise the UK’s position on the globe no longer provides existential safety or excludes our lack of ambition.

Lesson Two: Defence is Growth

Many will have seen the viral vox pop on social media of a young, stylish man in London stating, “I’d serve crack before l’d serve my country.” This highlights the staggering difficulty between the heart argument (“sure, increase Defence spending!“) and the head (“what do you mean higher taxes or less public services?“).

The Prime Minister need only to look again to Israel for evidence and inspiration. If some in his party will let him.

Israel is consistently globally ranked as being the number one country for startups. In 2022 the country, population 9 million, had 97 unicorns (companies worth over $1 billion) compared to the UK, population 68 million, which had only 47. Israel got here by forming Technology Incubator Programs in the 1990s: Government funding for early-stage projects, attractive tax incentives and R&D grants. And its economic might is inextricably linked to its Defence industry. Exemplified by ‘Unit 8200’, a secret technology division of its Armed Forces, often described as the nation’s start up machine, boasting a huge number of former operatives who have gone on to multi-billion-dollar success.

With Israel’s GDP per capita now close to or even exceeding that of the UK, and our nation experiencing a stubbornly persistent productivity gap, looking to the Defence industry for public-private partnership investment is a no brainer: Defence relies on public investment, creates jobs, innovation and investment, which, if executed with the ruthlessness of Israel, can yield tremendous national economic success and return on investment.

Lesson three: Defence is… well, everything

Russian tanks racing towards Kyiv, paratroopers on the runway at Hostomel and cruise missiles slamming into tower blocks that could have been lifted from the streets of London created a palpable sense of the threat to global survival in Winter 2022.

Three years on we became complacent – the enemy of success. Strength matters now more than ever and its currency is hard power. Israel, despite its size, has always been considered strong by its allies. And its enemies are quickly disavowed of any sense of weakness. Why? Because it maintains a cutting-edge potency where it matters: Intelligence, counterterrorism, defence technology, air power and air defence.

As the preeminent military power in Europe the UK must recognise and underpin our strengths. We have a strategic outlook; holding senior positions across NATO formations which we must reinforce and determine, with dependable allies, how we support each other. By consolidating our naval power pedigree, we can project our power worldwide. And our world class intelligence agencies can alert us of threats at a distance, saving time and money, if resourced correctly.

Starmer had the opportunity this week to set us on a bold new path on Defence, as a time when the public’s willingness to accept those arguments has rarely been greater. His rhetoric was swelling, invoking Atlee and Bevan who “won the peace” back in 1949. Depressingly, his great reveal was a stunningly technocratic and paltry 0.2% uplift by 2027 and noncommittal nonsense thereafter.

Is this the attitude that won that peace?

Israel doesn’t mess around with decimal points. Its decisions are based on necessity, growth and seriousness. This government does not recognise the need. Nor does it understand defence allied with industry. And it seems blissfully unaware of the seriousness of the scale. Though, maybe it’s about leadership and character.

Harking back to the great Emperor Hadrian, perhaps our great mistake may be to try to exact from each person virtues which he does not possess.