While on a CFI parliamentary delegation to Israel this week, CFI Parliamentary Chairman (Commons) Rt. Hon. Stephen Crabb MP and Honorary President Lord Polak CBE welcomed Boris Johnson as Prime Minister and commented on the future of UK-Israel relations in interviews with the Jerusalem Post and i24NEWS.
Speaking to i24NEWS, Mr Crabb welcomed the new Prime Minister’s strong support of Israel, saying: “In the past sometimes UK politicians have been very quiet about the relationship and the friendship with Israel. There’s nothing quiet about Boris Johnson. He will want to be very visible and demonstrable in showing that the UK-Israel friendship means something”.
Lord Polak added: “We have a Prime Minister who understands Israel well, he spent time on a kibbutz years ago, he’s been here on many occasions looking at tech, cooperation and many other things, and he gets it. That doesn’t mean Israel will get a free pass to do anything and everything beyond criticism, of course not”.
Watch the i24NEWs interview in full here.
Discussing recent developments with the Jerusalem Post, CFI’s Parliamentary Chairman said: “Britain, right now, has the most pro-Israel government it has ever had” and that “the Labour Party has the most anti-Israel leadership it has ever had. Never before have the two parties been in such contrast when it comes to Israel”.
Lord Polak welcomed the new government and said that having this government will certainly mean that defence and security ties between the two countries – which he said are at the highest level ever – will continue.
Lord Polak said he believes Brexit will also make it easier now for Britain to chart its own independent policy toward the Middle East, since it will no longer be tethered to the consensus opinion of the other 27 European Union sates. He added: “I won’t say it is all going to be smooth and perfect, but you may see some changes, and that we are more likely to take positions [on Israel] like Australia, Canada and the United States”.
Referring to the Government’s proscription of Hezbollah in its entirety earlier this year as an example, Lord Polak said that within the Conservative Party there is a move toward looking at the Middle East differently: “Not getting stuck in a time warp, where people are fighting the old battles, using old narratives, without understanding what is going on now”.
Mr Crabb spoke about CFI’s recent political campaigns, including on “the issue of whether UK aid money is being abused and going into the hands of convicted Palestinian terrorists and their families”.
Read the Jerusalem Post interview here.
