Thatcher and Israel

JPOST

[..] Thatcher, Britain’s first female prime minister, was also the first British prime minister to visit Israel. She had a record number of Jews in her cabinet and was a strong advocate for the release of Soviet Jewry. She often championed the Jewish people as well as their state – even as she harshly criticized some of its policies.

“She was a staunch friend of Israel and the Jewish people,” said Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu who knew her personally. “She inspired a generation of political leaders.[..]

Thatcher, a grocer’s daughter who became both a lawyer and a chemist before running for parliament as a member of the Conservative party, was first elected in 1959 as the representative of the Finchley district in north London, which had a heavy Jewish population.

“She felt a kinship with the Jewish people,” recalled Yehuda Avner, Israel’s ambassador to Great Britain from 1983 to 1988, and author of the book, The Prime Ministers.

“She was not of the usual Conservative Party establishment.

There was nothing upper class about her. It had been suggested that this is why she felt a certain kinship with Jews,” Avner said.

He added that she once explained to him that she saw in Israel some elements of “oldfashioned patriotism.”

“She admired Israel’s grit and guts. I once heard her say as much to the queen,” he said.

Avner recalled that upon becoming prime minister, Thatcher invited then-prime minister Menachem Begin to lunch at 10 Downing Street, even though there were those in the UK who still considered him a terrorist because he had been the head of the Irgun, a pre-state military organization, recalled Avner.

She didn’t always agree with Israel’s policies and had a preference for the Labor party over the Likud when it came to diplomatic issues, he said.

Avner also remembered how she once summoned him to No.10 to personally ask that then prime minister Yitzhak Shamir instruct Ariel Sharon to stop referring to Jordan as Palestine.

“She very often had to fight her own foreign office who tended to support sanctions against Israel because of its settlement policy,” said Avner. “As a matter of fact on certain very sensitive issues – and this was an expression of her friendship – she would invite me to her office at 10 Downing in order to avert the foreign office, which she knew would take a certain dim view.”

Azriel Bermant, a researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies at Tel Aviv University, who is writing a book on Thatcher and the Arab-Israeli conflict, said that although she was a genuine friend of Israel, her relationship with the state had its peaks and valleys.

It went downhill during Thatcher’s first term when she opposed Israel’s invasion of Lebanon in 1982 and her support of Palestinian self-determination – particularly of the EEC Venice Declaration that called for an end to Israel’s territorial occupation.

Although she took a strong stand against terrorism while in office, Thatcher also supported involving the PLO in the peace negotiations, he said.

Things improved when Peres was prime minister, Bermant said, both because of his political opinions and because she understood that to influence policy she had to improve her ties with Israel.

Peres said that during Israel’s peace negotiations with Jordan in the late 1980s, Thatcher was a mediator and a source of wisdom for both him and King Hussein of Jordan, both of whom admired her and respected her opinions.

Even after she left office, she maintained ties with Israel’s leaders, sending Netanyahu a handwritten note when he lost the 1999 prime-ministerial race, according to an official on his staff.

Long before Netanyahu entered politics, he admired Thatcher’s political philosophy. In 2000 he traveled to London to meet with her so he could better understand the economic reforms she implemented, the staff member said.

[..]

April 9, 2013 | 35 Comments »

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  3. Honey Bee Said:

    That he is a very fortunate cowboy. How do you make your own cream cheese? Did you get the song “In My Adobe Hacienda”, I have an soutwest syle adobe house,it dusty rose pink!

    Well the song was interesting but I cold never relate to cows in fact my ex refused to let me work with the cow on the Kibbutz because she couldn’t stand the smell.

    No I haven’t heard the song but PINK? Poor CB 😛

  5. @ yamit82:

    That he is a very fortunate cowboy. How do you make your own cream cheese? Did you get the song “In My Adobe Hacienda”, I have an soutwest syle adobe house,it dusty rose pink!

  6. Honey Bee Said:

    Iam reknown for my Cheese Cake,i use a little Mexican vanilla. CB say I have great long legs too.

    I make my own homemade cream cheese, better than Kraft.

    Re: Your “great long legs” according to CB? He thinks cows have beautiful legs and loves chicken wings. What am I to think? 😉

  10. Honey Bee Said:

    @ yamit82:
    You know what they say about the French!!!

    No! What do they say about the French?

    I know what the French say about the French. “They are all whores except my mother”

  17. Shy Guy Said:

    he still played hanky-panky with her sister, Mary

    Mary was also the mistress of Frances I of France he called his “great Enlish mare,whom he rode whenever he wished”.

  19. yamit82 Said:

    I only described a pop Icon and an age not speaking personally or from experience

    If you say so!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (: Honey Buns!!!!!!!

  22. Honey Bee Said:

    Yamit82 would only date Yamit82, any one else is boring.

    Never dated for intellectual stimulation. I was never looking to explore their minds. Man does not live by bread alone, I happen to have a thing for NY Cheese cake.

  23. @ Honey Bee:
    @ Shy Guy:

    Thatcher’s death is overshadowed and paled historically by the death of a real popular Icon of the Time, ANNETTE

    Hate to throw cold water on your speculations but I only described a pop Icon and an age not speaking personally or from experience. 😉

    Thanks YouTube!!!

  24. @ Shy Guy

    Darln I ment time wise,if he liked Annette,he is an Old guy. But, Yamit82 would only date Yamit82, any one else is boring. But, then what do I know, bees are celibate.

  27. Shy Guy Said:

    Henry VIII’s Great Hall at Hampton Court Palace,</blockquote

    That was Cardinal Wolsey's Hampton Court, Wolsey payed for and build it and Henry confiscated it. " If I had served my G-d half as welll as I served my King, he would not left me so." Wolsey dying words.

  29. Dean Said:

    but putting one’s confidence in the opinions of a French leader for an Israeli leader he had never met is pure ignorance and gives you some idea of how deeply ingrained antiseitism is in the British, French and overall European psyche.

    The Jerusalem Post Internet Edition

    Aristocratic anti-Semites at Hampton Court
    Yehuda Avner, THE JERUSALEM POST Jun. 14, 2005

    The sheer splendor of Henry VIII’s Great Hall at Hampton Court Palace, with its 16th-century Flemish tapestries and soaring hammer-beam ceiling, is an inspiration for prestigious entertaining on a prodigious scale.

    Queen Elizabeth II habitually celebrates her official birthday there, a sparkling occasion which assembles ministers of the crown, peers of the realm, knighted dignitaries, church notables, civic leaders and foreign ambassadors. Insignia of high rank and ancient office are on dazzling display, and a courtier in a black cocked-hat, red livery and great silver chains, boisterously strikes the floor with a huge baton while announcing the entry of each personage at the top of his voice.

    The royal banquet of the summer of 1988 was particularly noteworthy for the salacious gossip which was making the rounds of the Great Hall. champagne-fuelled guests were abuzz with the tittle-tattle triggered by the tabloids titillating that Britain’s future king, Charles Prince of Wales, husband of the widely-adored Princess Diana, had taken a mistress. Her name was Camilla Parker Bowles, and she was a married woman!

    As the evening got under way, the Archbishop of Canterbury was seen hurriedly disappearing with prime minister Margaret Thatcher into an adjoining chamber, where they were said to have engaged in an animated exchange on the royal succession.

    This, at least, was the speculation of the person on my right, a baroness whose name I do not recall but whose appearance was unforgettable. She had cobweb-like yellowish hair, a long neck noosed in yards of pearls, a prominent Adam’s apple, and was dressed in a fussy fire engine red. She had a face like a samovar.

    “Charles has taken a feather out of Henry VIII’s cap, I wager,” she remarked in a tone ringing with reproach. “Did you know that after Henry married Anne Boleyn he still played hanky-panky with her sister, Mary – and their mother, too, right here in Hampton Court. Did you know that?”

    I confessed that I didn’t.

    “And at the very same time he was also conducting an affair with a wench called Elizabeth Blount, also right here in Hampton Court. Did you know that?”

    Again, I admitted that I didn’t.

    “And did you know that not only was she his mistress, she gave birth to his only son?”

    Once more I acknowledged that I didn’t.

    The woman stared sharply at me through her pince-nez as though I was a nincompoop. Whereupon, she emitted a long audible sigh of incredulity, and hissed, “Do leopards change their spots? Can Charles the philanderer ever change his?” With that, she cast a sudden jaundiced eye at the white-gloved butler who was obsequiously placing a golden plate of kosher cuisine before me.

    “Foreigners!” she mumbled under her breath.
    “Bah!” and she tucked into her own dish.

    Whether this was meant as a slur on my beliefs or a slight at my ignorance I did not have the time to fathom, for now the lady on my left – a Lady Carpenter, wife of the dean of Westminster Abbey – marked my serving and began pontificating about the virtues of religious traditions. She was a trim, middle-aged lady of pious appearance – no make-up, no jewelry, her silvery hair simply done, her dress unadorned.

    The fellow next to her, a husky, soldierly type in his early 70s, with an aristocratic nose, glossy bald head, and piercing blue eyes, joined in to jovially declare, “By sheer chance, I partook of a kosher meal myself in New York last week.”

    “How interesting,” gasped Lady Carpenter. She sounded quite spellbound at the thought.

    “Oh yes, indeed. I was out with a Muslim chap I know, a Pakistani. And since we couldn’t find a halal restaurant we ended up in a kosher one. Good chicken soup, I can tell you. Ha, ha!”

    He spoke in a top drawer accent, and a crimson sash crossed his chest decorated with royal insignia and military honors. Proffering me his hand, he said, “My name is Howard, but people call me Norfolk.”

    I blushed at my gaucherie, for I had failed to recognize the Duke of Norfolk, Premier Earl of the English peerage and chief layman of the English Catholic Church.

    “Dr. Inamullah Kahn,” he warbled in his sonorous, la-di-da fashion – “that’s the fellow I was with – is the secretary-general of the World Muslim Congress. And we’d just awarded him the Templeton Prize.”

    The Templeton Prize is one of the most munificent prizes in the world – a cool $1.5 million – and is awarded for innovative contributions to the harmonious coexistence of religion and science. I deduced that the duke was on its judge’s panel.

    “And do you know,” he piped on, smiling in an unmirthful way so that his upper-echelon face contorted into a sort of sneer, “an influential New York lobby had the absolute effrontery to try and pressure us at the last minute to withdraw the prize.”

    “Really, Your Grace?” sighed Lady Carpenter. “How dreadful! But why, oh why would they want to do such a thing?” Her voice had trailed off into a whispery woe.

    “Because, madam,” answered the Duke with alacrity, “Dr. Inamullah Kahn is a friend and supporter of Yasser Arafat and his cause, that’s why.”

    “And who is this lobby?” I asked, antlers rising.

    “Oh, come, come, ambassador, you know as well as I do who the lobby is.” His expression was prim, his lips a tight smile.

    “No. Who?”

    “The Jew press of New York, of course.”

    “The what?” I could not believe my ears.

    “The Jew press of New York,” he gamely repeated.

    My heart was beating fast. “You’re an anti-Semite, sir,” I blurted out, totally beside myself.

    “Am I? It never occurred to me,” He seemed genuinely taken aback.

    Alarmed presumably at my breathlessness, Lady Carpenter began to rub my back, cooing with unreserved, melodramatic emotion, “Ambassador, ambassador, please do not let the wounds of 2,000 years be reopened. Let me mollify them with the balm of Jerusalem.”

    And as she rubbed, the Duke of Norfolk repeated over and over again, “Nothing personal, old boy – nothing personal.”

    These theatrics were halted by the red-liveried toastmaster who, barking for silence, commanded everybody to rise for the Loyal Toast. Instantly, the merry tables of the Great Hall went mute, and everybody rose. Then, we all settled down to the speeches.

    The orations done, guests moved into an adjacent grand parlor where brandy, liqueurs, coffee and cigars were proffered, and a string quintet played Bach.

    Amid the hubbub I came face to face with the baroness, who was enjoying a tipple. She was standing under a Gainsborough, not far from the secretary of state for Scotland, Malcolm Rifkind, and the head of the Liberal Party, David Steel. They were engaged in vehement conversation.

    By now a trifle inebriated, the baroness snarled, “Look at them – politicians! Talk, talk, talk!”

    “Scotsmen do seem to have much to talk about,” I bantered for want of nothing better to say.

    A derisive expression spread across the baroness’s beaky face, and with a jerk of her chin in Rifkind’s direction, scoffed, “He’s not a Scotsman. He’s one of yours.”

    That was enough! Earlier, this insufferable woman had addressed me in an admixture of paternalism and hauteur. Now it was pure hauteur – anti-Semitic hauteur.

    Irate, I retorted: “How can you say a man born in Edinburgh, raised in Edinburgh, educated in Edinburgh, represents a constituency in Edinburgh, and is the secretary of state for Scotland – is not a Scotsman?”

    The baroness’s lips twisted into a disdainful smile as she pointed in the direction of another Jew who was a member of prime minister Thatcher’s cabinet – the secretary of state for trade and industry, Lord David Young. Cynically, she chortled, “Young’s an Englishman as much as Rifkind’s a Scotsman.”

    Aghast, I quickly gazed around the big room in search of Jewish members of Margaret Thatcher’s cabinet.

    “Look,” I exclaimed challengingly, “There’s Keith Joseph, secretary of state for education and science. And over there is Leon Brittan, the home secretary. And by the window is Nigel Lawson, the chancellor of the exchequer. And there’s Michael Howard, minister of state for local government – in addition to Malcolm Rifkind and David Young. So what do you make of that?”

    Her eyes were a vicious glint. She said nothing.

    “So how come Mrs. Thatcher has so many Jews in her cabinet?” I kept on.

    Smoothly, snootily, she answered, “Because Margaret Thatcher is most comfortable among the lower middle class,” and off she traipsed, tipsy.
    That night I learned that there are grand houses of the British aristocracy where one can be an anti-Semite without shame, and where one can be an anti-Semite without knowing it.

    When Michael Howard fought an election as head of the British Conservative Party a few weeks ago, amid anti-Semitic slurs and undertones, I conjured up the memory of Hampton Court. One cannot be a Jew in British political life without learning a lot about anti-Semites. It is often a subtle, oblique, residual thing – a feeling that Jews are somehow not quite fully British.

    And this is a reminder, surely, that anti-Semitism has proven to be the most durable of ideologies. It has reemerged to become a powerful force in world affairs.

    Will Israel be more durable than anti-Semitism? Few things have been. Yet, ironically, anti-Semitism itself has kept many a Jew a Jew. And this goes for the Jewishness of the Jewish state, too.

    The writer, a veteran diplomat, served as ambassador to the Court of St. James.

  30. @ Shy Guy:

    Funny how Thatcher “agreed entirely with what President Giscard had said about Mr Begin,” despite the fact that President Valéry Marie René Georges Giscard d’Estaing (bloated name for a bloated, arrogant leader) “did not know Mr Begin, whom he had never met, but he thought his approach fanatical and unrealistic”. I do not pretend to know much about Thatcher’s Middle East policies, perhaps she was the best of a bad lot, but putting one’s confidence in the opinions of a French leader for an Israeli leader he had never met is pure ignorance and gives you some idea of how deeply ingrained antiseitism is in the British, French and overall European psyche.