Valerie Cocks

Valerie Cocks, wife of Labour's outgoing chief whip Michael Cocks,... known chiefly for running Labour Friends of Israel.^[1]

Her daughter is Gina Laub of whom Michael Cocks was stepfather. In 1989 she married businessman Meir Cohen:

Labour Party dignitaries, British olim, Israeli lawyers and guests from abroad mixed and mingled at last week's wedding of Gina Laub to attorney/Videomeet owner Meir Cohen, at the Daniel Hotel. Gina, who is the assistant to the Daniel's general manager Bernhard Kohn, made aliya 12 years ago... Notables at the elegant gathering included Labour leader Shimon Peres and ministers Haim Bar Lev and Gad Ya'acobi; Na'amat secretary-general Masha Lubelsky; and father-of-the-bride/diamond dealer Herman Laub from Belgium.^[2]

Activities

Attended the 2004 Yom Haatzmaut as a 'dignitary' along with 'a veritable Who's Who of British Jewry. The heads of The Board of Deputies, WIZO, JNF, UJIA, Jewish Agency, and WZO were all present'^[3]

Quotes

Islamophobe

Why is it that no one fleeing a Moslem fundamentalist regime ever seems to want to fly to another Moslem country? Lady Valerie Cocks^[4]

On Jews who are not Zionist enough

Lady Cocks, a redoubtable former director of the Labour Friends of Israel and wife of the former Labour Chief Whip, has been involved in numerous clashes with Mr Kaufman. They are hardly on speaking terms now. She finds his attitude to Israel and to the hard-line Arabs impossible to stomach and fears the harm he might cause as foreign secretary. Committed Labour supporters are said to comfort themselves with the thought that Neil Kinnock - acceptable to the Anglo-Jewish community, who like his Welsh warmth - would not necessarily give the Foreign Office post to Mr Kaufman but would place him in a less exposed department, should Labour win the election.

Mr Kaufman's claim to be an impartial expert on the Middle East, particularly Israel, was shattered, say Israeli critics, by his book Inside The Promised Land, published in 1986. Such phrases as "the Likud. . . were a collection of opportunists without any discernible principles or programmes" made even dovish left wing Israelis gasp. Even those who vehemently disagreed with Menachem Begin never doubted his sincerity or his firmly held principles. There were similar remarks about Israeli voters and the Sephardim (Oriental Jews) which made impartial observers doubt whether Mr Kaufman had a firm grasp of Israeli reality.^[5]

Zionist Propaganda

Huge sums of money should not be spent by Israel on counter-propaganda and public relations. It is up to the Jewish communities in each country to do this work and to fund it. This is vital for Israel, but also of great benefit to the Jews of the Diaspora. It is true there is anti-Israel and anti-Jewish prejudice, but there is a great deal of anti-Arab feeling and admiration of Israel too.

Whatever money is spent should be spent wisely and efficiently. There should be some central control in each country. At present in England, fortunes are spent by Zionist groups sending out contradictory material to each other. In Parliament, this does not matter, as none of it is read anyway. Nor will it ever be read unless accompanied by a covering letter addressed personally. It is no more difficult and certainly not more expensive to work efficiently. Let us not blame Israel for everything. In each country with a Jewish community, we all know that we must do much better ourselves. VALERIE COCKS, (Lady Cocks of Hartcliffe), Tel Aviv. ^[6]

Iraq

I find it very interesting that I did not see Dawn Primarolo's name in the list of MPs who voted against the Prime Minister about going to war with Iraq. I agree with the Prime Minister - tyrant dictators have to be stopped. If the world had stopped Hitler, many millions of lives would have been saved.

However, Ms Primarolo was always making speeches attacking my late husband, Michael Cocks, saying he was not left-wing enough. What a change. All the other left-wingers stuck together. Let us hear now what they think of her. She had meetings attacking Neil Kinnock, saying he was not left-wing enough. Perhaps she would like to make a statement to let her constituents know exactly how left-wing she is now?^[7]

Notes

1. ^PHS, 'Times Diary: Peer bonding', The Times (London) Issue 62260. October 4 1985, Friday
2. ^ Mira Helet, Ron Wegsman, Michal Yudelman 'ON THE RECORD' The Jerusalem Post, June 2, 1989, Friday.
3. ^ Yom Haatzmaut - Zionist Federation of Great Britain and Ireland The Best Ever Yom Haatzmaut Celebration April 26, 2004
4. ^AGENDA 2001 MONDAY SEPTEMBER 10TH: THEY SAID IT . . . COMMENT; Belfast News Letter (Northern Ireland) September 10, 2001, Monday Pg. 4
5. ^JOSEPH FINKLESTONE 'THE UNACCEPTABLE FACE OF KAUFMAN; Joseph Finklestone on why the shadow foreign secretary dismays Jewish voters' The Guardian (London) March 27, 1992, Pg. 23
6. ^ Valerie Cocks 'PUBLIC RELATIONS' The Jerusalem Post May 15, 1992, Friday.
7. ^ 'How Left Is The Left?' Western Daily Press, March 5, 2003, Letters; Pg. 12.