June 07, 2021 "Information
Clearing House" - - "New
Arab" - Former
British minister Alan Duncan has revealed the extent
of Israeli influence on the
UK’s diplomacy in his recently published
memoirs, saying the pro-Israel lobby wanted to
"destroy" him.
The report, published
by the Daily Maverick, considered that
Duncan's memoirs, released in April, provide "an
unprecedented view of the influence of the
Israeli government and pro-Israel lobby groups
on the British Foreign Office".
Duncan, a Conservative
member who served as foreign secretary between 2016
and 2019, revealed in his diaries, entitled 'In the
Thick of It: The Private Diaries of a
Minister', that Israel "succeeded in preventing
Prime Minister
Boris Johnson from appointing him" as minister
of the Middle East at the foreign ministry, just
because he believed in Palestinian rights.
Al Jazeera
had contacted Duncan early 2017 to inform him of its
investigation into the impact of Israel’s influence
on British policy, which included information
relating to him personally.
Duncan also revealed
that the network owned footage of diplomats from the
Israeli embassy in London "collaborating with MPs
from both the Labour and Conservative (parties) on
Israel," adding that Israeli diplomatic Shai Masot
wanted him "destroyed" so that he never becomes
foreign secretary.
In July 2016, the
former minister wrote: "All seems clear and agreed
that I will be minister for the Middle East, as
expected. Permanent Under-Secretary Simon McDonald
called to say it's all been agreed, and he would
recommend it to the foreign secretary."
He says this angered
the Conservative Friends of Israel lobby group,
adding that Johnson had told him the CFI were "going
ballistic".
The CFI is a powerful
lobbying group in London, which does not reveal its
source of funding, but claims that 80% of
Conservative parliamentarians are members of it,
according to the Daily Maverick report.
"Whereas they pretend
to believe in two parallel states, it’s quite clear
that they don’t, and so set out to destroy all
genuine advocates for Palestine," Duncan wrote, and
concluded by saying: "They just want to belittle and
subjugate the Palestinians.
"The CFI and the
Israelis think they control the Foreign Office. And
they do!’”
No Advertising - No Government Grants - This Is
Independent Media
Registration is necessary to post comments.
We ask only that you do not use obscene or offensive
language. Please be respectful of others.