British premier stresses his pro-Israel credentials
Gordon Brown tells British Zionists he always loved Israel
By Redress Information & Analysis
18 July 2007
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has appointed Israel apologists to key positions and has been at pains to reassure British Zionists of his support and affection for Israel
If anyone had harboured illusions that Britain’s new prime minister, Gordon Brown, might adopt a less biased position towards Israel than his Zionist predecessor, Tony Blair, now is the time to dispel them.
To begin with, Gordon Brown has appointed Israel apologists to key positions in his government, with arch-Zionist James Purnell heading the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, which has oversight responsibilities for the British media, including the BBC, and Douglas Alexander, a recipient of Labour Friends of Israel hospitality, taking over the Department for International Development.
They are complemented by another Israel apologist, Jim Murphy, who has become minister of state for Europe with responsibility for the BBC World Service and the British Council. Mr Murphy served as chairman of Labour Friends of Israel during 2000-02 and has also been a member of the Anglo-Israeli All-Party Parliamentary Group.
In addition, Gordon Brown has appointed Simon McDonald, a former British ambassador to Israel and a man described by Israeli officials as "a true friend to Israel", as his chief foreign policy adviser.
Another Israel fanatic, Meg Munn, becomes parliamentary under-secretary of state with responsibility for foreign affairs. Ms Munn is a former chairwoman of Labour Friends of Israel and is a recipient of hospitality from the Israeli Foreign Ministry.
Gordon Brown has also been at pain to stress his Christian Zionist credentials. In a speech to the Labour Friends of Israel annual fundraising dinner in April 2007, quoted by the Israeli newspaper The Jerusalem Post, Brown described how his father, a Presbyterian preacher, had been a passionate supporter of Israel who had taken him to the racist Jews-only state at least twice a year for most of his adult life to show solidarity with the usurpers of Palestinian land. He said:
Many of you know my interest in Israel and in the Jewish community has been long-standing... My father was the chairman of the Church of Scotland's Israel Committee. Not only as I've described to some of you before did he make visits on almost two occasions a year for 20 years to Israel – but because of that, although Fife [Scotland], where I grew up, was a long way from Israel with no TV pictures to link us together – I had a very clear view from household slides and projectors about the history of Israel, about the trials and tribulations of the Jewish people, about the enormous suffering and loss during the Holocaust, as well as the extraordinary struggle that he described to me of people to create this magnificent homeland.
Indeed, Gordon Brown made a strong impression on his Zionist hosts. Jane Kennedy, chairwoman of Labour Friends of Israel, said:
I have always felt that Gordon Brown is instinctively a good friend of Israel and I look forward to working with him. The combination of Gordon as prime minister and Tony Blair as Quartet Middle East envoy is a really exciting prospect and gives real hope for progress in the Middle East peace process.
We ourselves have never harboured any illusions about Gordon Brown. For those of our readers who have, we suggest you take comfort in the fact that, as far as international relations and the Middle East are concerned, neither the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland nor the Quartet are of any consequence whatsoever. While the has-been great power of bygone years is nothing but an appendage of the United States, the talking shop that has just appointed a war criminal as its peace envoy is no more than an international cover for US support for Israel.
As far as we are concerned, Britain, the Quartet, Gordon Brown and Tony Blair are irrelevant.
