Morning Call: The new Tory divide on Israel
Splits over the war in Gaza are pitting Israel-philes against Israel-sceptics.
Good morning, George here. With parliament still in recess, this week is likely to be dominated by foreign affairs once more. Below, I explore the emerging Tory fault line over Israel.
Then, Hannah Rose Woods writes on why experts believe it is already “too late” to avert a university funding disaster.
To read that, and access Morning Call in full each day, sign up here.
The story of this parliament has largely been of Tory division and Labour unity. But when the war in Gaza began last October, these roles were reversed: the Conservatives united in support of Israel while Labour fractured.
Six months later, the contrast between the two has lessened. Labour divisions over Gaza endure – Sadiq Khan and more than 50 MPs have called for the party to support a ban on arms to Israel – but they are now mirrored by Tory feuds.
Conservatives who have called for the government to suspend arms sales to Israel include MPs Crispin Blunt, Paul Bristow, Flick Drummond, David Jones and Alicia Kearns, as well as peers Nicholas Soames and Hugo Swire. It was Kearns, the Foreign Affairs Select Committee chair, who alleged that the government had received advice from its own lawyers stating that Israel had breached international humanitarian law in Gaza. While the government has so far refused to publish its advice, David Cameron used a Sunday Times op-ed to warn that the UK’s support for Israel is “not unconditional”.
As some Tories distance themselves from Israel, others are reaffirming their solidarity. Boris Johnson has assailed Cameron for refusing to rule out an arms ban (declaring that such an act would be “insane”). Suella Braverman and David Frost have similarly offered uncritical endorsements of the Benjamin Netanyahu government’s strategy.
It is the latter group who might be regarded as quintessentially Conservative, but history undercuts this assumption. Though Winston Churchill was a proud Zionist, not all of his successors shared his ardour. As prime minister, Ted Heath blocked UK arms sales to Israel during the 1973 Yom Kippur War and barred US planes supplying the country with weapons from using British military bases.
Labour was Israel’s most redoubtable ally then: as opposition leader, Harold Wilson imposed a three-line whip on MPs to back a motion supporting arms exports. Like Wilson, many in Labour, not least Tony Benn, were proud Zionists and championed Israel as a socialist experiment. The left’s admiration for the country contributed to the right’s suspicion of it (as, for some, did simple anti-Semitism). Tory Arabists, as they became known, instinctively sympathised with the Palestinian cause and Israel’s Middle Eastern rivals.
Under Margaret Thatcher, who viewed Israel as a vital Cold War ally, the Conservatives adopted a far more supportive position. As Israeli politics moved towards the right, so the right moved towards Israel. But a distinctive Tory Arabist strain endured, epitomised by Thatcher-era cabinet ministers such as Peter Carrington and Ian Gilmour, and later by the likes of Soames, Desmond Swayne and the former Foreign Office minister Alan Duncan (now under investigation for his comments on pro-Israel “extremists” inside the party).
Though it would be a stretch to describe Cameron as an Arabist, he was closest to this faction during his early years as Tory leader. In 2006 he condemned Israel’s invasion of Lebanon as “disproportionate”, in contrast to Tony Blair. As prime minister, Cameron declared in 2010 that “Gaza cannot and must not be allowed to remain a prison camp”.
He was never so critical again but his recent pointed references to Israel as an “occupying power”, and the sanctions imposed on violent West Bank settlers, have evoked memories of his earlier stance. As such, Cameron has become the leading target for those who fear the Tories are “going soft”.
There is, then, a new divide inside the Conservative Party. Rather than one between Zionists and Arabists – terms that reflect a different geopolitical era – it is best described as one between Israel-philes and Israel-sceptics. The former, in common with much of the US right, regard standing “shoulder to shoulder” with Israel as a defining test for conservatives; the latter fear that Israel’s present course will prove both morally and strategically disastrous.
This will be a crucial subplot in the battle for the Conservative Party’s soul.
George’s picks
The former head of Israeli intelligence, Ami Ayalon, tells Bruno Maçães why Israel is losing.
Lawrence Freedman explores how reality is chipping away at Putinism.
Charlotte Ivers warns that our addiction to takeaways is eating our towns alive (Times).
The NS is hiring for a new position: we are seeking an experienced writer-editor to join our team. Please pass this on to anyone you think may be interested, or click to apply.
Universities are in crisis
Higher education commentators have been warning for years of a looming crisis in university funding. Now, they are beginning to ask which institution will go bankrupt first. Few expect that the government would step in to bail out a university in serious financial difficulty. For one policy expert, it’s already “too late” to avert the oncoming disaster; “all everyone can do now is brace”.
Almost half of UK vice-chancellors expect their university to run at a loss this year. The value of tuition fees for domestic students has been falling in real terms, amid high inflation, since they were frozen in 2017 at £9,250 per year. For reasons that are not at all difficult to understand, almost no one – from politicians to students or their parents – wants to raise them. Universities have increasingly been making up for this shortfall by recruiting students from abroad, who pay dramatically higher fees. And now international student numbers, too, might be falling.
Click through to the NS to read the rest, or MC subscribers can read in full in-email.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Morning Call to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.