Labour Friends of Israel

Labour Friends of Israel (LFI) is a Westminster based pro-Israel lobby group working within the British Labour party which exercises significant influence over British Middle East policy. It is considered one of the most prestigious groupings in the party and is seen as a stepping stone to ministerial ranks by Labour MPs. LFI boasts some of the wealthiest supporters of the party, and some of its most generous donors, such as Lord Sainsbury of Turville, Michael Levy, Sir Trevor Chinn and Sir Emmanuel Kaye. Two of its leading members, Michael Levy, and David Abrahams, have been embroiled in major scandals involving the New Labour government in recent years. Both Gordon Brown and Tony Blair have been members of the group.

History

The committee wields considerable influence in Westminster and is also consulted routinely by the Foreign Office and Downing Street on matters relating to the Middle East. Tony Blair is known to consult its members over Middle East policy. The body also has Tory and Liberal Democrat sister organizations. The late Labour MP Gwyneth Dunwoody, former chairman of the Commons transport select committee, was the life president of LFI, while David Mencer, a former volunteer for the Israeli Defence Force, is a former director.

A small time player during the Thatcher years, LFI first made it into the news when one of its erstwhile guests, Erwin Van Haarlem, a Czechoslovakian art dealer turned out to be a spy for the Czech intelligence services. The 1987 gathering, to which Van Haarlem was invited because of his 'apparent support for Jewish causes', was also attended by members of the House of Lords, leading trade unionists, industrialists, and the former chief of staff of the Israeli army.

Buying Influence

While Labour originally carried a reputation for having more voices sympathetic to the Palestinians - especially during the Thatcher years - the New Labour government of Tony Blair has reversed this orientation. One of Tony Blair's first acts after becoming an MP in 1983 was joining LFI. Blair, as the Spectator reported in September 1997: 'joined LFI as soon as he was elected to Parliament in 1983, when it was a deeply unpopular, politically incorrect club to belong to' However, the relationship truly developed in the early 90s, when as shadow Home Secretary, Tony Blair met Michael Levy at a private meeting at the latter's house. Michael Abraham Levy is a former chairman of the Jewish Care Community Foundation, a member of the Jewish Agency World Board of Governors, and a trustee of the Holocaust Educational Trust. According to Andrew Porter of The Business, Levy expressed his willingness 'to raise large sums of money for the party' which led to a 'tacit understanding that Labour would never again, while Blair was leader, be anti-Israel' . The partnership proceeded as Levy started inviting potential donors for tennis at his palatial home where Tony Blair would join them for a set or two. Levy would then proceed to ask the guests for donations after Blair had left. The genius of Levy's fundraising strategy ensured that most of Labour's election funds came from private sources, rather than its traditional source - the trade unions, thereby weakening their say over policy.

Levy's investment eventually paid off, with Blair's ascension to power. The reward was not long in coming as Levy was ennobled and subsequently retained as a 'special envoy' to the Middle-East, leading predictably to the development of a strong pro-Israel line . Given the fact that Levy has both a business and a house in Israel and his son Daniel used to work for Yossi Beilin - the former Justice Minister of Israel - speaks of a serious conflict of interest, especially when he is the man assigned by Blair to negotiate impartially with Palestinians and Israelis. The fact that Levy acted as a fundraiser for former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak casts further doubt on his capacity for impartiality. According to Neil Sammonds of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign in 2002, four of the previous five ministers with Responsibility for the Middle East had been active members of LFI.

Cash and Dishonour

While Michael Levy was subsequently arrested and disgraced in what has come to be known as the 'cash-for-honours' scandal, his Israel connection was for the most part politely excluded. (This, however, did not deter some from proclaiming Levy a victim of anti-Semitism). The case was soon followed by another revelation that David Abrahams, a Labour Friends of Israel financier who has become the third largest donor to the party since Gordon Brown's ascencion, has donated more than £600,000 since 2003 illegaly through proxies. The subsequent scandal has swiftly spread to many leading figures in the Labour Party. Abrahams, a strong supporter of Israel, told The Jewish Chronicle that he donated cash secretly 'so as to avoid accusations of his being part of a “Jewish conspiracy”'. Labour Friends of Israel was implicated in yet another scandal when it was revealed that Cabinet Minister Peter Hain had also been the beneficiary of illegal funds siphoned through proxies. The funders Willie Nagel, a diamond tycoon, and Isaac Kaye, a South-African born supporter of the erstwhile Apartheid regime, are both tied to the Labour Friends of Israel.

Membership and Funding

LFI currently has a burgeoning membership in the Commons and it is seen as a certain ladder for success by aspiring politicians. Receptions hosted by the lobby usually boast a huge turnout, with such powerful guests as Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, the Israeli ambassador and the Israeli Deputy Minister of Defence.

LFI has found staunch allies in the current Labour government in the shape of Blair, Brown and Straw. The influence of this committee is quite evident in Blair's frequent comments in support of Israel, particularly at a time, when its actions have been widely condemned. Addressing a meeting of the body, Blair urged the British public not to forget the suicide attacks to which Israel has been subjected when criticizing Israeli aggression towards the Palestinians. That is indeed a remarkable observation given that - as is well known - the Israeli Human Rights Centre, B'Tselem, reports that the overwhelming majority of the victims, even in the current phase of the conflict, have been Palestinian civilians.

In 1997, prominent members of LFI contributed generously to the coffers of Labour, including Lord Sainsbury, who donated ?1 million - the biggest single donation ever - Michael Levy, who raised 7 million pounds, Sir Trevor Chinn, who was reported to have donated a six figure sum, and Emmanuel Kaye, who donated a sizable sum to Blair's blind trust. According to one party official, by 2001, Levy had raised up to 15 million pounds for the party. David Goldman - the Chairman of an Israeli telecommunications equipment company BATM Advanced Communications - is also reported to have made several 5-figure donations. The amount of influence such money could buy in today's politics cannot be discounted, and from Britain's unconditional support for Israel's brutal policies, it seems like the government is keen to deliver.

Trips to Israel

LFI sponsors trips of parliamentarians to Israel, purportedly to educate them on issues central to the conflict. One recent trip included a 'tour of Jerusalem and the route of the separation fence, plus meetings with Labour MKs, senior Foreign and Defence Ministry officials'. These trips are invaluable in cultivating relationships with members of the British parliament who can then be counted on to support legislation favourable towards Israel. These loyalties usually transcend moral barriers, as David Cairns - the organizer of one such tour - exclaimed after professing his deep commitment to Israel, "No one ever said being a friend of Israel would be easy", since his view of the 'peace process' was at odds with Israel's operative policy

A Labour campaign advert in the Jewish Chronicle boasted:

Since 1997 a record 57 Labour MPs have visited Israel, mostly with Labour Friends of Israel, swelling the number of MPS willing to ensure balance on the Middle East in the House of Commons. More Labour MPs have visited Israel than from any other party.

The advert also boasted that the new Terrorism Act of 2000 - for which LFI actively lobbied - 'proscribes terrorist organizations like Hamas, Hezbollah and Palestinian Islamic Jihad . Predictably enough there was no mention of the multi-million pound military aid to Israel's occupying forces.

Israel National News (Arutz Sheva) states:

Touting its links to Israel in campaign literature ahead of the last parliamentary elections, the UK Labour party boasted, "More Labour MPs have visited Israel than from any other party." In September of 2005, an LFI delegation visited the Western Wall tunnels in Jerusalem's Old City.

NB: the tunnels are provocations and a means to undermine the foundations of the Al Aqsa mosque, the third most important religious site in the world. The tunnels have been dug by extreme right-wing settlers with backing of the most reactionary American Zionist backers.

Some of the MPs, who had their trips to Israel sponsored by LFI in recent years include:

Douglas Alexander	David Blunkett	Andy Burnham
David Cairns	Ivor Caplin	Paul Clark
Anthony Colman	Tony Cunningham	Parmjit Dhanda
Andrew Dismore	Louise Ellman	Lorna Fitzsimons
Caroline Flint	Mike Gapes	Fabian Hamilton
Huw Irranca-Davies	Eric Joyce	Oona King
Ashok Kumar	Ivan Lewis	Anne McGuire
Rosemary McKenna	Gillian Merron	Margaret Moran
Meg Munn	Jim Murphy	Dan Norris
Sandra Osborne	Linda Perham	Peter Pike
Frank Roy	Joan Ryan	Angela Smith
Graham Stringer	Gareth Thomas	Stephen Twigg
Rudi Vis	David Watts	David Wayne

Former MI6 officer and member of the House of Lords Margaret 'Meta' Ramsay has also been on LFI sponsored trips.

Taming the Media

LFI has used its influence to intimidate British media into adopting an openly pro-Israel position. A recent study by the Glasgow University Media Group revealed the systematic bias in BBC and ITV's coverage of the Israel-Palestine conflict which often reproduces the official Israeli narrative uncritically, whereas very little time or detail is devoted to the Palestinian side. Some, who dared to criticize the Israeli position have faced bans, as Faisal Bodi, of BBC Radio 4's The World Tonight did. According to Bodi, LFI members play a "crucial propaganda role, carrying the flag for Israel in parliament, and lobbying editors to toe the Israeli line". Tim Llewellyn, a Veteran Middle East correspondent for the BBC, has gone to the extent of calling BBC's reporting on the Israel-Palestine conflict downright 'dishonest'. He has attributed it to the 'unremitting and productive' efforts by 'Israel's many influential and well organised friends" . However, this still did not preclude LFI's Andrew Dismore from expressing 'concern' about the BBC for being 'anti-Israeli and biased towards the Palestinians." This charge could not have been more frivolous given that BBC has referred to Jerusalem as Israel's 'capital' - a view otherwise shared outside of Israel by two out of the world's nearly two hundred countries.

A key association in LFI's powerbase is Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. The strategic alliance between News Corp. and New Labour was formed just before the 1997 election when Murdoch's The Sun and The Times switched sides to support Blair's election bid against the Tories, who had been discredited by a series of scandals. Murdoch has been a regular visitor to the Downing Street ever since. In a keynote address to an LFI meeting in London, the Northern Ireland Secretary and New Labour luminary Peter Mandelson praised Thatcher's intolerance towards the siege of Murdoch's union-busting Wapping plant by protesting printers. In the past Mandelson has appeared at pro-Israel rallies with the far-right former Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu. Mandelson also happens to be a close friend of Elisabeth Murdoch - Rupert Murdoch's daughter, and given Murdoch's own investments in Israel and his close friendship with Ariel Sharon, the orientation of Murdoch's newspapers is predictably pro-Israel. Journalists have complained of extremely narrow editorial parameters favouring Israel, and having to adopt official Israeli formulations like 'targeted killing', 'crossfire' and 'closures'.

Another natural ally in this enterprise was Conrad Black, whose Daily Telegraph and The Spectator magazine are two of the most influential pro-Israel voices in Britain. He was Chairman of the Board of Directors of Hollinger Inc. which owns the right-wing Israeli Jerusalem Post which openly advocated the killing of Yasir Arafat in 2003. The leading Neo-con and pro-Israel hawk Richard Perle is also a top executive at Hollinger. Black's wife Barbara Amiel is a famous right-wing Zionist columnist. Both are known for their unbridled support for Israel. Apparently as a reward for his contributions, Black has also been ennobled by the Blair government.

Obstacles to Peace

Given the hard line position of its donors, LFI has grown increasingly tendentious in its approach towards any resolution of the Middle East conflict. In 1990, two principal donors withdrew their financial backing for holding a joint meeting with the pro-Arab Labour Middle East Council. While LFI has consistently excused Israeli atrocities in the occupied territories as 'self defence', it certainly can't feign ignorance. One of its visiting members got a first-hand glimpse of IDF tactics when he got shot at in Rafah even though he arrived in a clearly marked UN vehicle. The three British MPs, surrounded by 20 children got shot at in the presence of UN officials, which led to a demand for investigation by the MPs into the IDF's 'outrageous behaviour' bordering on 'lunatic'. One of the MPs, Crispin Blunt, concluded 'If they are prepared to do this to people who come out of two clearly marked UN cars, what do they do when there is no one there?' He added 'They are building up levels of hatred that will take decades, if not centuries, to erase."

Such insights into have not precluded Blair from making significant contributions towards the maintenance of the illegal Israeli occupation. According to the veteran Journalist John Pilger:

Under Blair, British support for Israeli repression has accelerated. Last year alone, the government approved 91 arms export licences to Israel, in categories that included ammunition, bombs, torpedoes, rockets, missiles, combat vessels, military electronic and imaging equipment and armoured vehicles.

While Foreign Office minister Ben Bradshaw - an active member of LFI - said there was "no evidence" that British arms and equipment had been used against the Palestinians, the Pilger article cited an Amnesty International report claiming abundant evidence that the Apache helicopters used to attack the Palestinians are kept flying with British components made by Smiths Industries. Merkava tanks are serviced with parts from Airtechnology Group; BAE provides parts for Israel's F-16 fighter jets while converted British Centurion tanks are used as armoured personnel carriers. Land Rovers are an Israeli Army mainstay and British transponders are employed to coordinate helicopter attacks .

Pilger provides further insight into how the Israeli occupation is kept liquid:

The Blair government has also backed the Israeli military-industrial complex by buying bullets, bombs, grenades and anti-tank missiles. The Metropolitan Police and the South Wales police buy Israeli ammunition. An Israeli combat aircraft training system was bought by the RAF. In 1999, a joint UK-Israeli high-technology investment fund was established to pump funds into joint research and development.

The war on Iraq also received enthusiastic support from senior LFI members. An LFI gathering was reassured by Blair that 'a stable Iraq will be good news for Israel." Israel security needs were also cited as a rationale by the Neo-con dominated US administration in its decision to go to war. In an exclusive interview with Israel's daily Yediot Aharonot Condoleezza Rice said 'security of Israel is the key to security of the world." The economic dividends for Israel from this venture were not discussed as openly - except in Israel's own press. This led Tam Dalyell, the longest serving member of the House of Commons, to comment on the undue influence of the 'Sharon-Likudnik' agenda pushed by advisers such as Michael Levy (and the US neocons)- on Blair's decision to go to war. He commented on the Neo-conservative 'Cabal', particularly the 'Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs combined with neo-Christian fundamentalists' urging America on towards a 'Likudnik' policy of attacking Syria.

The Politics of Anti-Semitism

While more circumspect than its American counterparts, LFI - like most pro-Israel groups - has often tried to discredit criticism of Israel by conflating it with 'anti-Semitism'. LFI has not shied away from describing general resentment against Israeli policies as being rooted in, or contributing to, anti-Semitism. Lord Greville Janner, former president of the Jewish Board of Deputies and an LFI vice-chair has commented on the surge of anti-Semitism among the "viciously and often notoriously anti-Israel" left liberal media.

An alleged comment by the French ambassador to London, referring to Israel as that 'shitty little country' immediately elicited a demand by LFI (in a letter from Chair Jim Murphy and president Gwyneth Dunwoody) for his sacking, and the charge of anti-Semitism by Barbara Amiel in the Daily Telegraph. The Ambassador denied making the remark. For good measure, Dunwoody also added 'These comments are eerily familiar from the French.' Ironically enough, the alleged remark was made by the ambassador at a dinner hosted by Conrad Black.(Ibid.) Black's newspapers and magazines have regularly intimidated other media for their criticism of Israel as anti-Semitic. Black's The Spectator features articles by Melanie Phillips who is notorious for her extreme views, and has gone as far to suggest that Bishop Desmond Tutu's criticism of Israel is anti-Semitic.

During the elections for the seat of the Mayor of London, LFI compiled a dossier of the alleged 'anti-Zionist bias' of the candidate Ken Livingstone. The feud came to a head, with Livingstone's comments to an invasive reporter, accusing him of acting like a 'concentration camp guard'. Whereas LFI itself was guarded in its statements, its pro-Israel allies in the press were less inhibited as they cited various unnamed 'critics' and 'protesters' who found the comments 'anti-Semitic' as the reporter in question was Jewish. Livingstone's refusal to apologize and his subsequent publication of an op-ed openly critical of Israeli policies drew further ire from the lobby and its media surrogates.

Alarmed by the growing condemnation of Israel's brutal suppression of the Al Aqsa Intifada when Israel's PR apparatus responded with the New Anti-Semitism campaign (this campaign identifies criticism of Israel as a new form of anti-Semitism and progressive antiwar forces at its main purveyors), LFI was quick to latch on to the theme. James Purnell of LFI declared anti-Semitism 'a virus' once again infecting [British] body politic while Stephen Byers added that anti-Israeli criticism should not be used as "a cloak of respectability" for racist views. He went on to warn against dangers of the development of an "intellectual argument" bolstering anti-Semitic feeling. . Denis MacShane dispenses with any pretense of originality -- or subtlety -- altogether in publishing an op-ed in the Washington Post entitled 'The New Anti-Semitism', which he dramatically began by writing, 'Hatred of Jews has reached new heights in Europe', however the only evidence he cites for his tendtentious claims is a report by an entity called All-Party Parliamentary Inquiry Into Antisemitism. However, this entity is comprised exclusively of members of the Israel lobby, and the report -- published in 2006 to coincide with the campaign to resurrect Israel's image after the PR debacle that was the Lebanon war -- is itself of dubious merit. Norman Finkelstein writes:

To judge by the witnesses (David Cesarani, Lord Janner, Oona King, Emanuele Ottolenghi, Melanie Phillips) and sources (MEMRI, Holocaust Education Trust) cited in the body of the report, much time and money could have been saved had it just been contracted out to the Israel Foreign Ministry...

On the other hand testimony from Jews critical of Israel, such as the members of Jews for Justice for Palestinians, was pointedly rejected by the Committee.

The report defines an anti-Semitic incident as any occasion "perceived" to be anti-Semitic by the "Jewish community"... The report includes under the rubric of anti-Semitic incidents not just violent acts and incendiary speech but "conversations, discussions, or pronouncements made in public or private, which cross the line of acceptability," as well as "the mood and tone when Jews are discussed"... In the category of inherently anti-Semitic pronouncements the report includes "drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis" (only comparisons of contemporary Arab policy to that of the Nazis are permissible) and "theories about Jewish or Zionist influence on American foreign policy" (even if Jewish and Zionist organizations boast about this influence).

Target Iran

The neoconservative agitation for war against Iran has been complemented by campaign of fear-mongering in UK by key members of Labour Friends of Israel which while rejecting the military option reproduces much of the same unsubstantiated claims. Kim Howells, Mike Gapes and Siôn Simon have been actively promoting the 'Iran Threat'. Howells claimed Iran was 'hell bent' on developing nuclear weapons . Even though the US National Intelligence Estimate laid to rest claims about Iran's nuclear weapons program, Mike Gapes, the chair of the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee claims Iran still has 'ambitions' and 'by 2015 could gain the ability to quickly produce nuclear weapons.'

"Based on the evidence we have received and our own visit to Iran, we believe its nuclear ambitions remain...Iran must not be allowed to develop a nuclear weapon. If it did, it is very likely to lead to a domino effect in the Middle East. This challenge requires the world's urgent attention."

According to the BBC, 'The report also said it was equally important that the nuclear issue was not a distraction from addressing what it calls Iran's "malign influence" in the Middle East and support for insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan.'

Through its chief propagandist Emanuele Ottolenghi, LFI also has links to the neoconservative right. Ottolenghi is a personal friend of Michael Ledeen, and has also been a featured lecturer at the Henry Jackson Society, two key proponents of the anti-Iran campaign.

Meeting with American Jewish Committee

In 2006, the American Jewish Committee (AJC) report meeting with Labour Friends of Israel in 'an effort to strengthen AJC’s ties to British Jewry'

The report states that:

'AJC President E Robert Goodkind led a leadership delegation to London to meet with the Board of Deputies of British Jews, the main community organizing body for British Jews, as well as with the Community Service Trust and the newly formed Jewish Leadership Council. The group also met with British Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, longtime Jewish community leaders Lord Greville Janner and Sir Trevor Chinn, and with leadership from the Reform, Liberal and Conservative Masorti movements. In addition, the group held meetings with those Members of Parliament who initiated a serious parliamentary investigation of anti-Semitism, and with younger leaders of Conservative Friends of Israel and Labour Friends of Israel. AJC Board members Stanley Bergman and Peter Rosenblatt joined Goodkind on the mission.

Affiliations

• Trade Union Friends of Israel
• Academic Friends of Israel

People

Principals

• Iain Wright MP -- Chair
• Jon Mendelsohn MP -- Chairman (until March 2007)
• Andrew Gwynne MP – Chairman
• Gilad Hayeem – Chairman (departed January 2008)
• Gwyneth Dunwoody MP – President
• Baroness Ramsay of Cartvale – Chair (House of Lords)

Vice Chairs

• Andrew Dismore MP
• Louise Ellman MP
• Barbara Keeley MP
• Gary Titley MEP
• Mike Gapes MP (former VC)

Policy Council

• Stephen Byers MP
• Lord Foster of Bishop Auckland
• George Foulkes
• Jane Kennedy MP
• Denis MacShane MP

Parliamentary Executive Commons

• Chris Bryant MP
• Wayne David MP
• Fabian Hamilton MP
• Joan Humble MP
• Eric Joyce MP
• Ashok Kumar MP
• Andrew Miller MP
• Dan Norris MP
• Nick Palmer MP
• Terry Rooney MP
• Siôn Simon MP
• Dari Taylor MP

Lords

• Lord Archer of Sandwell
• Lord Burlison
• Lord Clarke of Hampstead
• Lord Clinton-Davis
• Lord Davies of Coity
• Lord Glenamara
• Lord Haskel
• Baroness Hayman
• Lord Hogg of Cumbernauld
• Lord Janner of Braunstone
• Lord Macdonald of Tradeston
• Lord Mitchell
• Lord Turnberg
• Lord Winston
• Lord Young of Norwood Green

Members and former officials

• Gordon Brown – Prime Minister
• James Purnell former Chair (2002)
• Kim Howells former Chair
• David Cairns
• Paul Clark
• Caroline Flint
• Jon Mendelsohn
• Lorna Fitzsimmons
• Valerie Cocks, ran LFI in the early 1980s.
• George Foulkes
• David Abrahams (fired by Jon Mendelsohn)

Staff

• Jennifer Gerber - director
• Luciana Berger - former director
• David Mencer - former director (July 1998 - May 2004)
• Dan Fox - former director
• Nick Cosgrave - former director
• Toby Greene head of policy and research
• Rebecca Simon former deputy director, moved to lobbying firm Hanover

Sponsorship

In 2002, Isaac Kaye and David Garrard sponsored the Labour Friends of Israel Annual Lunch. Amongst those in attendence were Jack Straw and Israeli Ambassador, Zvi Shtauber. In his speech at the event, Straw thanked Michael Levy for his work on behalf of the Jewish community in Britain.

Supporters

In 2003 Secretary of State for Defence, Geoff Hoon gave a speech to the United Jewish Israel Appeal. In his speech he declared that he is a 'strong supporter' of Labour Friends of Israel and a good friend of Trevor Chinn.

Contact, References and Resources

Contact

BM LFI

London WC1N 3XX

Website: www.lfi.org.uk

Email: mail@lfi.org.uk

Resources

• Nick Palmer - Letter to the Editor, The background to the Israeli operation in Gaza, The Guaridan, 9 July 2006