On the eve of the most important day of the Conservative leadership race so far, Iran launched over 180 ballistic missiles at Israel. Tensions in the Middle East were escalating, but would it cut through to the debate about the Tory leadership?

Two candidates made standing alongside Israel a key part of their main conference speech the following day. James Cleverly told the assembled members that he had been the first foreign minister to visit Israel after the 7 October attacks, before stating his “unwavering support to the people of Israel”. Tom Tugendhat took pride in having been sanctioned by Tehran, where the order to send the missiles had originated. There was no doubt whose side they were on.

That Israel didn’t make it into the speeches of Kemi Badenoch or Robert Jenrick was hardly a reflection of their lack of support. Badenoch kicked off the conference by praising Israel’s “moral clarity in dealing with its enemies and the enemies of the West”. Its actions against Hezbollah were, she said, “extraordinary”.

Jenrick went furthest of all the candidates. Having donned his “Hamas are terrorists” hoodie, he told the Conservative Friends of Israel (CFI) reception (attended by all four candidates) that, under his leadership, the next Tory manifesto would pledge to move the British embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. It was a plan previously considered during Liz Truss’s brief premiership, following the example of the United States in 2018, but the proposals were dropped by Rishi Sunak.

Jenrick’s dramatic pledge on the embassy was overshadowed only by a seemingly bolder one: to display the Star of David at “every airport and point of entry to our great country”. Yet after some misleading reporting, it emerged that he had proposed Israel be added to the list of countries eligible to use electronic passport gates, resulting in its flag being shown alongside the EU, American and Australian flags, among others, at passport control.

Although it was a former Tory prime minister, Arthur Balfour, who issued the declaration pledging British support for a “national home for the Jewish people”, Conservative affections for Israel haven’t always been effusive. Anglo-Israeli relations arguably reached their nadir under a Tory prime minister when, during the Yom Kippur War in October 1973, Edward Heath refused to allow American planes to refuel at British bases on their way to support Israel.

Not for the first time, Heath’s views on Britain’s international relations caused a backlash within his own party. One MP accused him of giving in to “oily blackmail” from the Arab States. Israel-supporting Conservatives rallied together the following year to found the Conservative Friends of Israel, a group which has since won many Tories to its cause.

The current Conservative love-in with Israel reflects the elevating of values in the party’s foreign policy thinking. The pragmatism of Tory PMs in the middle of the last century often led them to seek close relations with the oil-rich Arab nations, sometimes at the expense of Israel. Harold Macmillan, in the earliest days of his premiership, wrote of the need for an Israel policy which kept Britain “as right as possible with the Arab world”. Yet since Margaret Thatcher, and particularly in the last couple of decades, Conservatives have increasingly prized support for the Middle East’s Western-facing democracy over other regional considerations. This trend accelerated during Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership of Labour, during which the party hierarchy was accused of overlooking antisemitism.

The alleged hostility towards Jews in Labour under Corbyn prompted solidarity from many Tories. The CFI stand and reception became two of the most in-demand at the party conference and the group’s pin badges, showing British and Israeli flags side-by-side, were a popular choice for the lapels of members.

The growing alignment of the party with Israel was solidified on 7 October last year. While a small number of Conservative MPs felt Israel’s response was disproportionate, the depravity of the attack led most to frame their response as a question of terrorism versus self-defence. “I will never equivocate on who was to blame for this utterly abhorrent act of terror,” said Rishi Sunak just days before leaving Downing Street, and pledged to be “steadfast in standing by Israel”.

His successor as Conservative leader seems certain to do the same. No matter who wins on 2 November, the Tories’ bond with Israel appears insoluble.

---

Lee David Evans is an historian of the Conservative Party and the John Ramsden Fellow at the Mile End Institute at Queen Mary, University of London.

LeeDavidEvansUK

---