The Israeli Lobby

Is it anti-semitic to claim that Israel interferes in UK domestic politics?

‘Simon… didn’t I tell you? The CFI [Conservative Friends of Israel] and the Israelis think they control the Foreign Office. And they do!’”, Sir Alan Duncan, British foreign minister from 2016-19, in his new book, ‘In The Thick Of It’.

‘He said this included Shai Masot, a diplomat from the Israeli embassy “calling for them to destroy the ‘Deputy Foreign Minister’ (i.e. me), so that he never becomes Foreign Secretary.” Duncan added: “They say that if [then foreign secretary] Boris [Johnson] were to be sacked, I’d take over and so both such moments have to be stopped.”

Mark Regev, then Israel’s ambassador to Britain, according to Duncan, Regev told him Masot is a “local hire, works in a junior capacity and does not have diplomatic status.”

“It’s all total bollocks,” Duncan wrote. “Masot is a First or Second Secretary, a member of military intelligence, employed specifically as a parliamentary and undercover propagandist.” He continued: “What on earth is the point of Regev stating something that is so blatantly untrue, and about which we both hold the facts? What a muppet.”

Duncan talked with Emily Thornberry, then shadow foreign secretary, to see if Labour intended to table an urgent question in parliament on the matter.
“They won’t because it would risk stirring up more anti-Semitism accusations against them,” Duncan reported, referring to the long-running “anti-Semitism crisis” that rocked the Labour Party under the leadership of Jeremy Corbyn.

The LFI faced no action from Labour in the aftermath of the Al Jazeera program.

Former British Minister: ‘Israelis Think They Control the Foreign Office. And They do!’