After shaming himself helping Priti Patel run her private foreign policy in Israel, this Lord should keep his mouth shut
Lord Polak: Does a man who supports human rights abuses really belong in the Upper House of the UK’s Parliament?
Lord Polak is the man who accompanied Priti Patel to Israel in 2017, where it seems he acted as a go-between for her to hold meetings with senior political figures, without telling the UK’s Foreign Office.
She was carrying out her own foreign policy, contrary to UK government expectations at the time.
And he facilitated it.
In This Writer’s view, he crossed the border between support for another country’s government and treason against his own.
Ms Patel lost her Cabinet job over the affair – although it says much about Boris Johnson that she is back, and in the much more important position of Home Secretary.
Did Lord Polak experience any sanctions at all? I don’t remember any.
And now he’s talking about international forums “singling out” Israel. Isn’t he the one with the obsession?
Note that he also supports Israeli human rights abuses (as described in this article).
It seems he can’t wait for Johnson to outlaw BDS – the “Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions” process in which companies complicit in such abuses are denied trade.
It seems clear from his support of Ms Patel and Lord Polak, and his plan to outlaw BDS, that Johnson also supports human rights abuses. But then, you only have to look at Tory policy on state benefits to know that.
A veteran pro-Israel lobbyist in Westminster believes the recently-elected Conservative government represents an important opportunity to advance Israel’s interests amongst British decision-makers.
Lord Polak, a Tory peer, and president of Conservative Friends of Israel, was speaking to right-wing news outlet JNS days after a speech in the House of Lords in which he attacked the so-called “singling out” of Israel in international forums such as the United Nations.
“I have no problem with legitimate criticism where it is due, but this obsession with Israel needs to be addressed. This singling out of the Jewish state is wrong, unjustified and plays a role in the rise and rise of anti-Semitism,” Polak told the chamber on 7 January.
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