Is this the most anti-Israel government in history? The Middle East Minister Hamish Falconer would undoubtedly wear that designation with pride. You could hear the glee in his voice when he told MPs “an inevitable consequence of the actions announced from this Dispatch Box is that the warmth of my relationship with my counterparts in Israel has indeed suffered.”
It’s certainly the most anti-Israel administration since Ted Heath when UK-Israel relations hit a historic low, leading to the creation of Conservative Friends of Israel in 1974. Founded by former MP Michael Fidler, CFI sought to build meaningful and lasting support for Israel within the Conservative Party at a time when Britain’s arms embargo and refusal to support US efforts on behalf of Israel caused concern among a number of Conservative MPs.
After decades of developing and deepening relations with the world’s only Jewish state the Starmer government has chosen to throw it all away all to appease a vociferous minority of backbenchers consumed with an irrational hatred for Israel.
Bear in mind that this government came to power just nine months after Israel suffered the worst loss of life on any day in its history, the worst loss of life for Jews since the Holocaust. On October 7 swarms of Palestinian terrorists invaded southern Israel in an unprovoked attack to brutally slaughter, rape and abduct thousands of innocent civilians including hundreds at a music festival. With hundreds of Israelis held hostage, and with Hamas demonstrating beyond any doubt its genocidal intentions, the IDF began a campaign to destroy Hamas and rescue the hostages, immediately prompting wave after wave of bombings not just from Hamas but also from Hezbollah in the north. In April 2024, Hezbollah and Hamas were joined by Iran, the Houthis and groups in Iraq in attacking Israel.
The moral imperative for this new government could not have been clearer. Do we stand with Israel, our friend and ally, and her democracy, record of human rights, rule of law? Or do we stand with the scores of terrorists which seek to destroy her and its people?
Like in 1973, the government chose to stand not with our ally, but those trying to destroy it. Since becoming Foreign Secretary, Yvette Cooper has mentioned Israel 34 times in the chamber, virtually all negative. She has mentioned Hamas just 21 times. Astonishingly, she has mentioned China – an "epoch-defining and systemic challenge" according to the Integrated Review Refresh 2023 – a paltry 26 times. She has not visited Israel once. Summing up her and her government’s “achievements” recently she told Parliament: “We have restored and increased funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, suspended arms licences for use in Gaza, dropped the challenge to the International Criminal Court jurisdiction, suspended trade negotiations with the Israeli Government… Most importantly, we took the historic decision… to recognise the state of Palestine.
There is no doubt that the government’s approach has helped fan the flames of antisemitism here in Britain. The government has failed to learn that it will never appease the mob. It is still condemned by the vicious antisemites taking over our streets as being insufficiently hostile to Israel.
This week, though, the government is leaving with a reminder of a different approach. As was announced on Monday, the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corp has been designated as a terrorist organisation under the State Threats Act. This is not the same as full proscription. It treats the IRGC as a state actor as opposed to a hybrid “that combines hostile state activity with asymmetric warfare and the promotion of a violent Islamist extremist and antisemitic ideology” as Kasra Aarabi has identified.
Nevertheless, as one of a handful of politicians to have been proscribed by the IRGC, I do take a certain satisfaction in seeing the government take this step, even if it is only a small one, even if it is insufficient.
It certainly doesn’t compare to the conviction and courage shown by Kemi Badenoch, the Conservative leader. As Kemi told our annual business lunch in June: “Israel’s fight against Islamist terrorism is not Israel’s fight alone. It is part of a wider struggle.”
And it certainly doesn’t change the fact that as Starmer leaves office, he leaves an indelible stain on our foreign policy. The UK can no longer be considered a friend of Israel. We are at best an irrelevance. And with Andy Burnham pledging to double down, we may find ourselves becoming a foe.
Lord Polak is the Honorary President of Conservative Friends of Israel
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