Former British Minister: âIsraelis Think They Control the Foreign Office. And They do!â
Matt Kennard reports on revelations of Israeli state influence on U.K. politics in Alan Duncanâs recently published diaries.
From revelations about Israeli efforts to âdestroyâ him, to attempts by a powerful pro-Israel lobby group to stop him becoming a minister for the Middle East, Sir Alan Duncan saw up close the power of the Israeli state in British politics during his time at the heart of the U.K. government.
Duncan served as British foreign minister from 2016-19, having previously held the international development brief. His new book, In The Thick Of It, reveals much about U.K. government policy that has been missed by the British press and broadcasters.
At the beginning of 2017, media outlet Al Jazeera contacted Duncan to inform him about its undercover investigation into Israeli influence in U.K. politics, which included revelations related to him personally.
Duncan wrote in his diary that Al Jazeera âhas footage of diplomats from the Israeli embassy in London collaborating with MPs from both Labour and Conservatives on Israel.â He said this included Shai Masot, a diplomat from the Israeli embassy âcalling for them to destroy the âDeputy Foreign Ministerâ (i.e. me), so that he never becomes Foreign Secretary.â
Duncan added: âThey say that if [then foreign secretary] Boris [Johnson] were to be sacked, Iâd take over and so both such moments have to be stopped.â
Days later, Duncan went to the Foreign Office to brief Simon McDonald, who was then running the department, on the revelations.
Duncan wrote: âI teasingly remind him of what happened and what I said to him on my first day as minister. âSimon⌠didnât I tell you? The CFI and the Israelis think they control the Foreign Office. And they do!ââ
The CFI is Conservative Friends of Israel, a powerful Westminster lobby group that does not disclose its funders but has claimed 80 percent of Conservative MPs are members.
âThey Shouldnât Behave Like Thisâ
On the same day, Duncan spoke on the phone to Mark Regev, then Israelâs ambassador to Britain. According to Duncan, Regev told him Masot is a âlocal hire, works in a junior capacity and does not have diplomatic status.â
âItâs all total bollocks,â Duncan wrote. âMasot is a First or Second Secretary, a member of military intelligence, employed specifically as a parliamentary and undercover propagandist.â
He continued: âWhat 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.â
Duncan then briefed Boris Johnson who was âindignantâ.
ââThey shouldnât behave like this,â [Johnson] exclaimed, though Iâd told him a million times that they do.â
Duncan confided that he withheld some information from Johnson: âThe Al Jazeera tapes essentially say that I run the [Foreign Office], BoJo is an idiot, I take the serious decisions, and if anything happens to Boris I will become Foreign Secretary and so I must be destroyed. Itâs a poor reading of the facts â indeed, itâs balls â but it gives a useful insight into Israelâs mentality.â
The Al Jazeera documentary also uncovered the degree of Israeli state influence over the opposition Labour Party.
In a conversation filmed outside a London pub, Michael Rubin, the parliamentary officer for Labour Friends of Israel (LFI), which counts dozens of Labour MPs as either âofficersâ or âsupporters,â revealed the close links between the group and the Israeli embassy in London.
Rubin said that he and Shai Masot âwork really closely together⌠but a lot of it is behind the scenes.â He added that âthe [Israeli] embassy helps us quite a lot. When bad stories come out about Israel, the embassy sends us information so that we can counter it.â
https://consortiumnews.com/2021/06/04/former-british-minister-israelis-think-they-control-the-foreign-office-and-they-do/