Rachel Reeves: the Zionist minister in a Labour government turning on Israel

Any ideas? Here’s another clue. They’re all in the cabinet. Yes, the current cabinet – the one that has rewarded Hamas for the October 7 massacre by recognising a Palestinian state, that has placed a partial ban on arms exports to Israel, that has restored funding to Unrwa, the UN agency which employed some of the October 7 terrorists, and which supports the ICC arrest warrant against Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant.

So while they are all Zionists because they support Israel’s right to exist, you might think that it’s nonetheless a form of chutzpah to so describe themselves. It’s a pretty low bar, after all, to say you support Israel’s right to exist. Not many politicians would feel the need to say they support France’s right to exist or, come to that, Egypt’s, Iran’s or Iraq’s.

Here are the answers, by the way, which I hope you agree make for interesting reading. The first quote is from David Lammy, who, as foreign secretary was responsible for turning British foreign policy towards treating Israel as a de facto enemy that needs to be punished, rather than as the trusted ally that shares intelligence to save many British lives.

The second is not merely a cabinet minister; he is the prime minister. And it’s an interesting form of words, because even though he plainly is a Zionist – he supports Israel’s existence as a Jewish homeland – Sir Keir has consistently refused to call himself such. Indeed, at a Labour leadership election hustings in 2020 he explicitly rejected the label, saying "I don't describe myself as a Zionist but I understand and I sympathise and I support Zionism.” Talk about carefully chosen words…you can clearly take him out of being a lawyer, but you can’t take being a lawyer out of Sir Keir.

As for the third quote: that was Rachel Reeves, speaking on Monday at the Labour Friends of Israel’s annual lunch. And it’s especially interesting because of the three, it’s clear to anyone who has followed Reeves’ political career that when she says she is a Zionist, she is not merely saying that she supports the idea of Israel existing – her Zionism is a lot richer, fuller and real than that.

I first came across Reeves in 2011, when we were both panellists on Question Time. At the time she was already a junior shadow Treasury spokeswoman, even though she had only been elected in 2010. I didn’t know much about her, so I asked around to find out what I should expect. One thing kept being repeated to me – that she was as sound as they come on Israel. She got it. At the post-recording meal, it was clear to me that she was the real thing: a Labour Friends of Israel member who really meant it and who understood why defending and supporting Israel mattered. I’ve seen nothing since then to make me doubt that.

Which is interesting, given that she is one of the most senior members of a government which plainly doesn’t understand why defending and supporting Israel matters – or, one might better say, is so focused on the threat posed by the sectarian Muslim vote that it has decided to turn on Israel.

As Chancellor, Reeves is obviously bound by cabinet collective responsibility. So she is unable, even if she wanted to, to say, let alone do, anything different from the government’s policy. There is of course no way of knowing if, left to her own devices, she would indeed be different to others in her party who once seemed to get it but have now changed their tune.

By which I mean Wes Streeting, who was originally keen to be seen as a friend of Israel in his Ilford North constituency until he realised he was under threat from the Muslim vote and began to work with Mend, a group described by the CST as having “a troubling attitude to antisemitism”. Streeting has launched their “Islamophobia Awareness Month” and as the then co-chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on British Muslims pushed its catch-all and deeply worrying definition of Islamophobia as a form of racism targeting expressions of "Muslimness".

Reeves’ speech this week was strong on the need to confront antisemitism in the UK. She made the central point – all too often denied by the left - that to tackle Jew hate requires tackling so-called anti-Zionism: “[W]must reject, wholeheartedly, the belief that there is something inherently wrong about the right of the Jewish people to self-determination…doing so is a precondition to driving antisemitism off our streets, out of our schools, and away from our campuses.” Hurrah for that.

She understands the link between anti-Zionism and Jew hate. But a cynic would point out that she is a member of a government that has not merely fed the anti-Zionist narrative but has allowed Jew hate itself to flourish. “The record increase in antisemitic incidents we have seen since the October 7 attacks is a stain on this country”, she said. “This is a situation we cannot and will not accept.” This is no better than the usual mantra that there is no place for antisemitism on the streets of Britain, when the evidence is that there is every place for it on the streets of Britain, regularly and repeatedly. Far from “cannot and will not accept” antisemitism, Reeves’ government fans the flames with its actions towards Israel and then makes next to no effort to tackle it when it emerges.

But in the spirit of Chanukah, let’s focus on the positive. Even if Reeves falls short as a member of a government which has turned Israel into an enemy, and which presides over an explosion in Jew hate, at least she understands the issues. Which is more than can be said for most of them.