Discussions about Israel in parliament and in the country more widely since October 7 have inevitably centred around security and the conflict.
But for Greg Smith, MP for Mid Buckinghamshire who earlier this year became Conservative Friends of Israel (CFI)’s parliamentary chairman in the House of Commons, it is important that the wider ties between both countries – which ultimately benefit the citizens of both countries – aren’t forgotten.
“I was always struck on one of my first delegations to Israel as an MP going to the 34th floor of a tower block in Tel Aviv, finding out quite randomly that this company has been providing these high-end test-at-home kidney function tests to Buckinghamshire GP practices.
"It just brings it home to you even more about the incredible level of life sciences and health tech innovation in Israel that I think the British public are largely ignorant to, that is quite literally keeping British citizens alive, or at least healthy right now,” said the Tory MP who is also a shadow transport minister.
“When you look at the whole concept of the start-up nation and everything Israel does to encourage entrepreneurialism and innovation, and there’s just so much to learn there that we’re falling woefully behind on,” he added.
In the three years since Hamas’ invasion of Israel on October 7, the conversation has inevitably shifted.
But even in the previous parliament, where there were far more Conservative than Labour MPs and, he says, “many more pro-Israel voices”, it was still a “fight” to get the truth on Israel to be heard.
Although he had been a member of CFI before his election to parliament, this experience and being faced with “the lazy narrative that underpins those that wish Israel harm or simply don’t wish to understand Israel”, saw him want to be more involved with the organisation “to ensure that our friends and our allies in Israel actually get a fair hearing in the British parliament, and in you the UK at large, because the mainstream media certainly won’t.
"So many MPs, particularly since the 2024 general election, won’t. And someone’s got to.”
Parliamentary time has certainly been dominated by the conflict in Gaza. The JC previously revealed that MPs had spent more time talking about Israel than the NHS in the year after October 7.
This isn’t a surprise to Smith, who says some MPs are unhealthily “obsessed” by the topic.
“There are some MPs who I don’t think I’ve ever heard talk about their constituency, but I’ve heard them attack Israel an inordinately large number of times,” he said, adding: “That’s just that’s just not what we’re here to do.
“I mean, foreign affairs is an important part of our job, but for a British politician to quite literally define themselves by their views on Israel, Palestine, Gaza in particular, it’s not what we’re really fundamentally here to do. We’re here to represent our constituents.”
Although scrutiny of foreign policy is vital, the energy subsumed by MPs talking about Israel “is not reflective of what’s in my inbox”, though he saw it as “concerning” that several independent MPs had been elected by using Gaza as a mobilising issue.
He says government ministers have been wrong in their criticism of Israel when it comes to aid into Gaza. Recalling a visit to Israel earlier this year he was in the Civil-Military Coordination Centre (GMCC) in Kiryat Gat, he said: “We saw on the Americans’ huge video screens aid flows moving.
“We saw those trucks that have, all you know, been verified to have food and medicine on them, not the apparatus to build bombs and missiles and weaponry, or dig tunnels or whatever it might be, physically moving from Israel into Gaza.”
Yet, very shortly after physically seeing the aid flowing into Gaza on the ground, he was stunned to see ministerial criticism of Israel over aid flows that didn’t match up to reality: “It is just incomprehensible how the narrative from ministers to large swathes of the British mainstream media to other MPs are just allowed to swallow a total fiction.”
Smith is also reflective that, even under the previous Conservative government, they faced difficulties in, as he puts it, ensuring “that everything that was being said by the UK Government matched up to reality”.
He highlights the long delay in banning Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), despite the fact that it is known that Iran was responsible for carrying out terrorist activities on British soil.
“We still haven’t proscribed the IRGC, and I don’t know how many times I stood up and told the last government to do it, and how many times I’ve told this government to do it, but it’s been a considerable number.
“We’ve even now got a government that, on paper, says that they wish to do it, but still haven’t actually done it.” The process for proscribing Palestine Action appeared more straightforward, Smith added.
He suspects that advice given by the Foreign Office may have urged against taking more robust action against the IRGC, a point previously made by former MI6 chief Sir Richard Dearlove in an interview with the JC.
“I’ve never been a minister, let alone an FCDO one, but something is a blocker, and knowing how government works, it will be advice from civil servants that will be getting in the way.
“Now, again, we don’t get the detail of what the security services say and do, but I’d be amazed if it was the security services. Therefore, all roads lead back to the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.”
He continued: “I just fear ministers are being given the runaround on technical points and legalities that somehow try and argue the case against prescribing an organisation who we know have attempted 20 plus acts of terror on our soil, let alone what they are responsible for within the Middle East, which is just heinous and evil.
"So that’s kind of what I mean by it’s harder than it needs to be.”
The 47-year-old fanatical Formula One fan, whose old constituency boundaries included the British Grand Prix’s iconic Silverstone Circuit, took over in the leading CFI role after Suella Braverman, the former home secretary, defected to Reform UK.
When discussing pro-Palestine protests, he also used her language to describe them as “hate marches”.
He says: “I’m sure the vast majority of people who go on them don’t go on them for bad reasons, but because they’re on them, they’re being used by those that do wish to push a violent agenda.”
He says his predecessor was correct to use the language that she did and was criticised for, but he lamented her inaction.
Smith says: “She probably was a little bit ahead of the curve and calling them out for what they were.
“The problem is that she was the home secretary and didn’t actually change it. And that’s a fundamental flaw, that when you’ve got the power to do something about it, it’s not credible to then carp from the sidelines.”
What should have happened, was a far harsher crackdown on antisemitism or calls for violence at them: “Anyone carrying those antisemitic banners and calling for violence should have been taken off the streets there and then, and to face the full force of the law.”
Another area that requires the government’s urgent attention is the charity sector.
“We still have organisations where we know there are hate preachers and those pushing an intimidatory, violent antisemitic agenda existing within charitable structures and within charitable structures, you’ve therefore got the even worse problem, the state’s funding them through Gift Aid!”, he says, adding: “Let’s not wait for Prevent to come up with a view, because we’ll be waiting forever for that.”
Calling for a proactive involvement of the security services to tackle extremist charities, Smith urged: “Dismantle any organisation that is harbouring, fostering, promoting, those that are spreading this, this evil message.”
Mid Buckinghamshire has a small Jewish community, “a wonderful organisation led by Rabbi Neil Janes” but one without a permanent location. This presents its own security challenges in the world where shuls increasingly face violent attacks.
Earlier on the day of our interview, Smith had raised the community’s unique situation: “They don’t have their own synagogue. They don’t have a centre or anything like that. They move from location to location … And all of the grant funding for security and support at the moment is inextricably linked to having a premises”.
Although he had previously written to Dan Jarvis, the security minister answering questions, about the situation, the minister retorted that the letter “has not been put in front of me”, something Smith was incandescent about when he spoke to the JC from his Westminster office.
“That just makes you want to slam your head into the wall, because the fear out there is so palpable and horrible, and we have had British Jews stabbed on the streets of Golders Green, ambulances set fire to,” he says, exasperated, but undeterred in wanting to stand up for his constituents.
“I will continue to do what I can to support them. It is a small part of the population in Buckinghamshire, but it’s a bloody important part.”
To get more Politics news, click here to sign up for our free politics newsletter.