{"id":111456,"date":"2017-01-09T08:55:31","date_gmt":"2017-01-09T16:55:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/?p=111456"},"modified":"2017-01-09T08:55:31","modified_gmt":"2017-01-09T16:55:31","slug":"labour-calls-for-inquiry-into-israeli-diplomats-take-down-mps-plot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/?p=111456","title":{"rendered":"Labour calls for inquiry into Israeli diplomat’s ‘take down MPs’ plot"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Guardian<\/a>: The Labour party has called on the government to immediately launch an inquiry into \u201cimproper interference in our democratic politics\u201d after the disclosure that an Israeli embassy official had plotted to \u201ctake down\u201d UK MPs regarded as hostile.<\/p>\n

The shadow foreign secretary, Emily Thornberry, said: \u201cThe exposure of an Israeli embassy official discussing how to bring down or discredit a government minister and other MPs because of their views on the Middle East is extremely disturbing.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Israeli ambassador, Mark Regev, has apologised to one of the MPs on the \u201chit list\u201d, foreign office minister Sir Alan Duncan, describing the remarks as unacceptable. As a result, the Foreign Office said it regarded the matter as closed.<\/p>\n

But Thornberry said: \u201cIt is simply not good enough for the Foreign Office to say the matter is closed. This is a national security issue.\u201d As well as calling for an inquiry, she said the embassy official should be withdrawn.<\/p>\n

The official, Shai Masot, who describes himself as a senior political officer, was caught on camera in an undercover sting by a reporter from the al-Jazeera investigative unit.<\/p>\n

The embassy said Masot would shortly be ending his term of employment with the embassy. Masot had been speaking to Maria Strizzolo, a civil servant who was formerly an aide to another Conservative minister. Sources at the Department for Education said on Sunday they understood Strizzolo had resigned from her civil service post.<\/p>\n

The revelations also provoked anger among many Conservative politicians. One former minister in David Cameron\u2019s government said the embassy\u2019s efforts to exert improper influence on British public life went far further than any plot to \u201ctake down\u201d unhelpful members of parliament.<\/p>\n

Writing anonymously in the Mail on Sunday, the former minister said: \u201cBritish foreign policy is in hock to Israeli influence at the heart of our politics, and those in authority have ignored what is going on.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor years the Conservative Friends of Israel (CFI) and Labour Friends of Israel (LFI) have worked with \u2013 even for \u2013 the Israeli embassy to promote Israeli policy and thwart UK government policy and the actions of ministers who try to defend Palestinian rights.<\/p>\n

\u201cLots of countries try to force their views on others, but what is scandalous in the UK is that instead of resisting it, successive governments have submitted to it, take donors\u2019 money, and allowed Israeli influence-peddling to shape policy and even determine the fate of ministers.\u201d<\/p>\n

The former minister said there needed to be a full inquiry into the Israeli embassy\u2019s links with CFI and LFI, and that while political parties should welcome funding from the UK\u2019s Jewish community, they should not accept any engagement linked to Israel until it ceases new developments on Palestinian land.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis opaque funding and underhand conduct is a national disgrace and humiliation and must be stamped out,\u201d the former minister wrote.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Guardian: The Labour party has called on the government to immediately launch an inquiry into \u201cimproper interference in our democratic politics\u201d after the disclosure that an Israeli embassy official had plotted to \u201ctake down\u201d UK MPs regarded as hostile. … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-111456","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-israel"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111456","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=111456"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111456\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":111457,"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111456\/revisions\/111457"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=111456"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=111456"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=111456"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}