Analysts have been scrutinizing the record of Grant Shapps since he was appointed the United Kingdom’s new defense secretary on Thursday.
A fact that may not appear on his resume: he has said that he was once president of a branch of the BBYO Jewish youth movement.
Shapps, a veteran Conservative member of parliament, previously held other Cabinet-level roles under a series of prime ministers — including a total of six days as home secretary under Liz Truss, the shortest stint anyone has had in that position. He replaces Ben Wallace, who announced last month that he would resign after a failed bid to become NATO’s secretary general.
Shapps is the government’s first Jewish defense secretary since Malcolm Rifkind, who served in the post from 1992-1995.
“I don’t eat pork, we only buy kosher meat and we don’t mix meat and milk. I like being Jewish and I married a Jewish girl. It’s like a way of life and it’s good to be able to instil some of that sense of being in your kids,” he said. “All of that makes me seem as though I am quite observant but actually the flipside of this is I don’t know if there is a God or not. But one thing I am absolutely certain of is that God wouldn’t care if you were Jewish or Christian or Muslim.”
He said that while he believes that Israel has a right to exist, he also thinks the country “could have more forward thinking policies,” adding, “I think it is absolutely inevitable that Palestinians will, and have to, have their own state.”
Source - JTA/X - Image - Reuters