Al Ahram Weekly and Ahram Online, by Azza Radwan Sedky
Tuesday 11 Oct 2022
Where will the unabashed assertions of newly appointed British Prime Minister Liz Truss take the United Kingdom and its relations with the Middle East, asks Azza Radwan Sedky
Less than a month after she became Britain’s newly elected prime minister, Liz Truss reiterated her unwavering support for Israel. Truss identified herself as “a huge Zionist” and a “huge supporter of Israel,” causing a commotion in social and mainstream media. It is an allegiance rarely expressed in such powerful terms by a non-Israeli citizen.
Truss held the position of Britain’s foreign secretary from 2021 to 2022. Her record reveals the probable direction the British government will take on issues related to the Middle East, as Truss was and remains a staunch supporter of Israel and a self-proclaimed champion of the British Jewish community.
During her first speech as foreign minister, Truss listed “liberal democracies” by name, citing Australia, the members of NATO, the G7 group of countries, and, astonishingly, Israel, saying that “there is no closer friend and ally” to Britain than Israel.
At that point, Ian Austin, a former Labour MP who now serves as UK prime ministerial trade envoy to Israel, said that “anyone who believes in strengthening the relationship between Britain and Israel should be delighted by the appointment of Liz Truss as the new foreign secretary. There is no doubt about her support for Israel and its right to defend itself.”
But it is only if the Palestinians are removed from the picture altogether that one can consider Israel to be a democracy. As the newspaper the Arab News has commented, “to Truss, the Palestinians do not exist.”
That may be exactly what is happening. Truss hailed Israel during the assault on Gaza in August when 15 children were killed by commenting that “the UK stands by Israel and its right to defend itself.”
In November 2021, while signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with then Israeli foreign minister and future Prime Minister Yair Lapid that committed Britain and Israel to closer collaboration and pushed hard for a free-trade agreement with Israel, she also spoke of Britain having a “unique partnership” with Israel.
Campaigning for the prime ministerial position, she many times identified British Jews with members of her Conservative Party. “I believe that Conservative values and Jewish values go hand in hand,” she said. She also favours and admires British Jews, saying that “the strength of the Jewish community is a shining light in Britain.”
So, Truss’ voicing her allegiance to Zionism is nothing new, and it was anticipated. However, the adamant way in which it was phrased, its premature timing, and its subsequent reverberations are alarming.
It is as not as if Truss does not have enough on her plate already, with domestic woes such as inflationary pressures and historic losses for the British pound. The British media has had a heyday with her “I am a huge Zionist” comment. Some have asked rightfully “what is a Zionist?” Some have questioned her lack of “political depth and maturity,” and some have found her remarks indicative of her “political naivety” and “addiction to publicity.”
Others were more blunt, “Truss’ language when praising the Jewish community suggests the new prime minister’s awkwardness on the public stage is not confined to past bizarre remarks about British cheese, apples, and pork markets which, for a time, made her an object of ridicule,” one said.
In her zealous defence of Israel, Truss may have stepped on some Brits. The Times of Israel said that a lack of deftness was evident in Truss’ statement about a “woke civil service culture that strays into antisemitism” in Britain, which had British trade union spokespersons fuming, accusing her of “throwing around unfounded inflammatory accusations” that illustrate “a lack of leadership” and should be viewed as “insulting and abhorrent.”
And now that Truss has made her views on Israel utterly clear, what will the ramifications be? In 2017, then British prime minister Theresa May criticised then US president Donald Trump’s moving of the US Embassy to Jerusalem. Today, Truss may go ahead with a similar move. She has openly said that she will review whether Britain should follow suit and move its embassy to Jerusalem. She has also said that “there is just one capital to the UK, and that is London. There is just one capital to Israel, Jerusalem.”
Truss, along with Israel, a vocal opponent of the nuclear deal with Iran, will also likely work hard to stop a new deal being signed even though this is being devised not to allow Iran to have nuclear weapons. One of her sayings is “believe me, the UK will never allow – together with our allies – Iran to get a nuclear weapon.”
Truss sees one side of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, never once reflecting on the Palestinians. She will likely back Israel at the UN against any probes into Israel’s actions against Palestinians in Gaza or elsewhere.
“UN representatives with a history of antisemitic remarks should have no role in reviewing the activities of Israel,” she says. Truss has ignored the perils that the Palestinians suffer. Not once has she referenced or cited the escalating repression against them or denounced Israel’s apartheid society. The Israeli Centre for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, a NGO, has identified 2021 as the deadliest year since 2014 for the Palestinians.
In 2014, Israel killed 319 Palestinians including 71 minors and demolished hundreds of homes.
Truss may prove to be overly committed to her words by exhibiting an unwavering dedication to Israel. In her defence of Israel, she will always ensure that those who are against Israel are “prosecuted quickly within the full force of the law,” she says.
Time will tell where Truss’ words and her opinionated views will take the UK and its relations with the Middle East.
* The writer is former professor of communication based in Vancouver, Canada.
*A version of this article appears in print in the 13 October, 2022 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly.
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