The Influence of Israel in Westminster

The celebration at Windsor Castle of Israel’s 60th year

Excerpts:

]John McCain's] Pastor Hagee declared “Turning part or all of Jerusalem over to the Palestinians would be tantamount to turning it over to the Taliban.”

Hagee's 2007 annual conference in Washington attracted more than 4,250. The conference highlight was a “surprise appearance” by Hagee-endorsed Sen. John McCain, the Republican candidate for President. His opening line was “It’s hard doing the Lord’s work in the city of Satan.” He received seven standing ovations..

a day before Hagee’s visit to Ariel, Rabbi Eric Yoffie, the president of the Union for Reform Judaism, the largest Jewish religious organisation in the United States, with over 1.5 million members, denounced Hagee and his followers for religious extremism.

Jon Mendelsohn of the Labour Friends of Israel...: ‘”Blair has attacked the anti-Israelism that had existed in the Labour Party...Zionism is pervasive in New Labour. It is automatic that Blair will come to Labour Friends of Israel meetings.”‘

One of Blair’s first acts on becoming an MP in 1983 was to join Labour Friends of Israel. But the major change only occurred after he rose to control of the Labour party. To carry out his planned policies, he needed to try to break the funding influence of the trade unions. So he needed an ally with ample funds.

Levy expressed his willingness “to raise large sums of money for the party” if there was a “tacit understanding that Labour would never again, while Blair was leader, be anti-Israel”...

Levy in effect made New Labour possible. For this he was rewarded immediately with a peerage, as were some of their other donors. Levy has described himself as “a leading international Zionist”...

Thus the Israeli lobby helped Labour break the power of the trade unions, in return for reshaping the entire UK political scene in the interests of Israel.

As we now know Iraq was never a threat to the UK – but it was potentially to Israel. Blair told his Jewish audiences, “a stable Iraq will be good news for Israel.” He also held back from doing anything to bring the fighting to an end while Israel was bombing Lebanon.

Gordon is more personally immersed in Zionism than Blair. ...‘I have been proud to be a member of Labour Friends of Israel over three decades. ...I was brought up with a very strong understanding that the future of Israel matters not just to Israel itself but matters to the whole of the world and I will continue to do what I can both to defend Israel …’

One of Gordon Brown’s first acts after assuming the Prime Minister’s role was to accept an appointment as Patron of the Jewish National Fund founded in 1901. The Israeli government sold to this Fund the land seized from Arab refugees – and then made this land only available for Jews to settle on. It planted forests over the uprooted olive trees of former Palestinian settlements. It currently owns about 14% of Israel.

Brown’s appointments are much more worrying. 
Mendelssohn of Labour Friends of Israel as his chief fundraiser for the next election
former British ambassador to Israel, Simon McDonald, as his chief foreign policy adviser
James Purnell, the chairman of Labour Friends of Israel from 2002 to 2004, secretary of state for culture media and sport, giving him oversight over the British Broadcasting Corporation and the rest of the British media. 
Jim Murphy, Chairman of Labour Friends of Israel from 2000-02, the position of Minister of State for Europe with responsibility for the BBC World Service and the British Council
Kim Howells a former chair of Labour Friends of Israel, as Middle East Minister. 

The Director of Labour Friends of Israel is David Mencer, a former volunteer for the Israeli Defence Force.

David Abrahams, the strange shape-shifter at the centre of the [secret Labour] funding furore, was once Mr Big in LFI; so is John Mendelsohn
Lord Levy is also a key member of LFI.

We witnessed the tortuous police investigation into the peer’s affairs during the cash for honours investigations, but not once was there any scrutiny of Levy’s connection to LFI and how that might have led to the offer of his prestigious position as the Middle East envoy.

A Recent Achievement of Labour Friends of Israel
They have strongly and powerfully lobbied for the UK and EU to cut off financial aid to the Gaza Strip as long as the elected Hamas government of Hamas is in power. Thus they share responsibility with Israel for the current atrocious and miserable living conditions in the Gaza, including the children dying because they are not allowed to go to Israeli hospitals and Gazan hospitals have been sanctioned out of medical supplies.

Conservative Friends of Israel claims that with over 2,000 members and registered supporters alongside 80 percent of the Conservative MPs, they are now the largest affiliated group in the party. They run six deputations to Israel a year – paid for by the organisation. ..They maintain constant contact with the Israeli embassy.

David Cameron: “I am proud not just to be a Conservative, but a Conservative Friend of Israel.”  His recent tour of Israel began with a two hour Black Hawk helicopter flight with the Israeli defence minister.

Dr Liam Fox MP, Shadow Defence Secretary has stated, "Israel’s enemies are our enemies and this is a battle in which we all stand together or we will all fall divided."

The Liberal Democrats
Lib D‘Friends of Israel Group’ website is stridently pro-Israel - in fact much more so than that of the Labour group.  It states that it is a ‘myth’ that ‘Israel “occupies” the West Bank’ and a ‘myth’ that ‘the Jews created the refugee problem by expelling the Palestinians.’

Benita Ferrero Waldner, the EU’s external relations commissioner, has indicated that she is keener to foster closer ties with Israel than with almost any other country in the Mediterranean region. As well as remarking that Israel is “closer to the European Union than ever before,” she said that a “reflection group” is studying how relations between the two sides can be upgraded to a “truly special status.” Whereas formal bodies have been set up to deal with human rights questions in Morocco and Jordan, only an informal “working group” addresses such issues in the case of Israel.  Israel is generally treated as if it is a member of Europe despite being outside it - just as it is for Soccer and for the Eurovision contest - yet its religiously biased constitution is a bar from membership.

Janine Roberts investigative features have been widely published in the major Australian newspapers as well as in the Independent and Financial Times in the UK. Her investigative film “the Diamond Empire” was shown on Frontline WGBH in the USA and on the BBC - it was researched partly in Israel.

Original in Palestine Chronicle
Reproduced from The Fanonite