Ian Black writing in the Guardian observes:
We discover that the Chairman of Britain's major pro-Israel lobby group, BICOM, has business interests in a large settlement in the West Bank east of Jerusalem. These settlements were described recently by Foreign Secretary, David Miliband, as 'illegal' and 'an obstacle to peace'.
We reveal opaque patterns of funding of MPs and candidates by members of a pro-Israel group in Westminster. We pick apart how these groups in Westminster operate and assess whether British foreign policy has been affected. We also speak to journalists about the pressure they face from groups in the UK and abroad.
We conclude that the pro-Israel lobby, in common with other lobbies, has every right to operate in Britain. But it needs to be far more open about how it is funded and what it does. The present obscurity surrounding the funding arrangements and activities of many of the lobby groups can paradoxically give rise to conspiracy theories that have no basis in fact.
See more here opendemocracy.net website
Pro-Israeli organisations in Britain look set to see their influence increase if the Conservatives win the next election, a film scrutinising the activities of a powerful but little-known lobby warns today.
At least half of the shadow cabinet are members of the Conservative Friends of Israel (CFI), according to a Dispatches programme being screened on Channel 4. The programme-makers describe the CFI as "beyond doubt the most well- connected and probably the best funded of all Westminster lobbying groups". Inside Britain's Israel Lobby claims that donations to the Conservative party "from all CFI members and their businesses add up to well over £10m over the last eight years". CFI has disputed the figure and called the film "deeply flawed".
The programme also describes how David Cameron allegedly accepted a £15,000 donation from Poju Zabludowicz, a Finnish billionaire who chairs Bicom (the Britain Israel Communications and Research Centre). Zabludowizc, the film reveals, has business interests in an illegal West Bank settlement. He also gave £50,000 to Conservative Central Office. Zabludowicz says his contributions "are a matter of public record".
Two years ago a controversial study by American academics Stephen Walt and John Mearsheimer explored the influence of the Israel lobby over US foreign policy. But Britain's pro-Israel organisations have been subjected to far less scrutiny.
"The pro-Israel lobby … is the most powerful political lobby," Michael Mates, a Conservative MP and privy councillor, told the film-makers. "There's nothing to touch them."
Read more here Pro-Israeli lobby group bankrolling Tories
Jeffrey Blankfort on Mondoweiss asks whistfully,
How long before American journalists catch up with the frank discussion of the Israel lobby that is now beginning in England? The Guardian has a big piece on a report on the British TV program Dispatches which presented a documentary on the power of the pro-Israel lobby in the UK. Unlike the US where AIPAC throws all its politicians into one basket be they Democrat or Republican, the British Zionists have them broken down by party. So there is the Conservative Friends of Israel, Labour Friends of Israel, and Liberal Friends of Israel which was the first to break ground.See further here British leader promised lobby never to use word ‘disproportionate’
Real 'friends of Israel' recognise that one sided support for the illegal Jewish settlements and continued denial of Palestinian civil rights undermines the security for Israel.
