ISRAEL PLOT TO ‘TAKE DOWN’ TORY MINISTER
Astonishing undercover video captures diplomat conspiring with rival MP’s aide to smear Deputy Foreign Secretary
THE Israeli Embassy made a shocking vow to ‘take down’ Boris Johnson’s Foreign Office deputy, a secret film reveals today.
The bombshell footage, covertly filmed in a London restaurant and obtained by The Mail on Sunday, shows a senior diplomat making the astonishing threat to target Sir Alan Duncan.
Extraordinarily, he is egged on by a senior aide to another Conservative Minister, Robert Halfon.
The video comes in a film claiming to expose the way that the Israeli government has ‘infiltrated’ both the Conservative and Labour parties via its embassy in the UK, using secret cash and covert support.
Further footage shows the Israeli diplomat, intelligence expert Shai Masot, telling senior Labour MP Joan Ryan that he has obtained ‘more than £1 million’ to pay for
sympathetic Labour MPs to visit Israel. Mr Masot also mocks ‘crazy’ Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and his ‘weirdo’ supporters.
Footage also shows pro-Israel Labour activists discussing the Jerusalem government’s secret role in backing their activities.
The revelations follow Tory infighting over the Party’s policy on the Israel-Palestine dispute, and repeated claims of anti-Semitism among Labour’s Leftwing ‘Corbynistas’.
Senior Tory MPs have condemned the apparent threat to ‘take down’ Sir Alan – who has been critical of Israel and who is described in the secret footage as causing ‘problems’ – and called for a Downing Street inquiry.
Former Tory Minister Sir Desmond Swayne condemned Mr Masot’s ‘disgraceful’ comments, adding: ‘To talk of “taking down” a British Minister is very sinister. There is anger in the US at Russia’s meddling in its democratic process and no such foreign meddling should be allowed in the UK.’
He was backed by Crispin Blunt, Conservative chairman of the Commons Foreign Affairs Select Committee, who is also targeted by Masot in the film. He called the alleged comments about Sir Alan ‘outrageous’.
The disclosures are in a film made by the investigative unit of the Qatari-based Al Jazeera TV company, which claims to show how the Israeli Government has ‘infiltrated’ the Conservative and Labour parties.
But Lord Stuart Polak, senior CFI director, said last night: ‘It is utter nonsense to assert that any UK political party is taken over by any organisation.
‘The Friends of Israel groups do their job of educating their members about the complicated issues in the Middle East. The Israeli embassy represents Israel in a professional manner. To suggest they are involved in anything sinister is poppycock.’
One pundit claimed that Britain’s recent support for a UN Security Council vote condemning Jewish settlements on the West Bank undermined the claim that the pro-Israeli lobby dictates UK foreign policy. However, days after the vote, Theresa May angered Palestinian supporters by attacking US Secretary of State John Kerry’s claim that the current Israeli Government is the ‘most Right-wing in its history’.
An undercover reporter and hidden cameras tracked Masot across Britain as he held secret talks with figures from the Conservative Friends of Israel (CFI) and its Labour counterpart (LFI).
His apparent threat to ‘take down’ Sir Alan was made a month later at the Aubaine restaurant, directly opposite the Israeli Embassy in Kensington, West London, where Masot is based.
Also present was Maria Strizzolo, senior aide to Education Minister Robert Halfon, former political director of CFI. After Ms Strizzolo boasts about her role in making Halfon a successful Minister, Mr Masot asks her conspiratorially: ‘That’s obvious, but can you do the opposite stuff as well? Can I give you some names of MPs that I would suggest you take down?’
When Ms Strizzolo replies that all MPs ‘have something they’re trying to hide,’
Mr Masot says: ‘I have some MPs’ and tells the undercover reporter: ‘She knows which MPs I want to take down… the Deputy Foreign Minister [Duncan].’ He says Sir Alan – a well-known critic of Israel, and Boris Johnson’s second-incommand – is ‘doing a lot of problems’.
He appears to suggest that Sir Alan is more powerful because Johnson ‘is an idiot with no responsibilities. If something real happened… it will be Duncan.’ Strizzolo says Sir Alan is ‘impossible to rebuff’ and has powerful ‘friends’ and claims that in a bitter clash over Israel with her boss, Sir Alan ‘threatened to destroy’ Mr Halfon.
‘Rob told the Whips and they told him [Halfon] to calm down,’ she says. Strizzolo then suggests: ‘A little scandal maybe?’ adding: ‘Don’t tell anyone about this meeting.’
Ambitious Mr Masot’s CV has the hallmarks of a spy: he spent eight years in the Israeli Navy’s ‘Special Unit’, has a degree in International Affairs, worked in Israeli Defence intelligence, has the rank of major and recently applied to run Israeli Foreign Affairs intelligence.
He says he is ‘not a career diplomat’ and came to the UK ‘to take care of specific political issues – that’s what I do’.
Mr Masot also says he missed out on a job in the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, joking: ‘It was a huge fight… me and another candidate... I tried to kill him but it didn’t work.’ In a discussion about other ‘pro Arab’ Tory MPs, Mr Masot refers to Crispin Blunt, who, like Sir Alan, has criticised Israel.
Ms Strizzolo chips in: ‘On the hit list? Yeah!’ adding she ‘cannot stand [‘pro-Arab Tories’] – they’re horrible people... the two go together.’ ‘Arab apologists,’ comments Masot.
Both Mr Halfon and Ms Strizzolo are prominent supporters of Conservative Friends of Israel.
Shortly after Mr Halfon was made an Education Minister by Theresa May last year, Ms Striz-
‘Can I give you some names of MPs? Duncan is doing a lot of problems’
zolo, his former Commons chief of staff, became a civil servant at the Education Department and continues to work part-time for
‘We’ve got the money – more than £1 million’
him at the Commons. In the film, she boasts of how she and the CFI ensure Tory MPs offer vocal support for Israel, for example by preparing public statements for
them. ‘If you do everything for them it’s harder for them to say, “I don’t have the time... I won’t do it”,’ she said.
She says she phoned Mr Halfon from Israel and ‘convinced’ him to ask a question to David Cameron in support of Israel in Prime Minister’s Questions in the Commons in 2014.
When Mr Masot asks: ‘ Did he do it?’ Ms Strizzolo replies: ‘Yeah, and [obtained] a Government statement.’
The film also shows how Mr Masot had intensive contact with pro-Israel Labour figures and discussed extra funding for LFI at the Part’s conference in Liverpool in September.
He tells the group’s chairman, Ms Ryan, of plans for ‘another delegation of LFI activists’ to visit Israel.
Ms Ryan responds: ‘ That’d be good. What happened with the names we put in to the embassy, Shai?’
Masot: ‘We’ve got the money, more than £1 million, it’s a lot of money.’ Ryan: ‘It must be.’ Masot: ‘I have got it from Israel. It is an approval.’
Ryan: ‘I didn’t think you had it in your bag!’
Last night, Ms Ryan said the claims in the film were ‘rubbish.’ Mr Halfon and the Israeli embassy declined to comment.
Ms Strizzolo said last night her conversation with Masot was ‘tongue-in-cheek and gossipy’, adding: ‘Any suggestion that I… could exert the type of influence you are suggesting is risible.’
She knew Mr Masot ‘purely socially and as a friend. He is not someone with whom I have ever worked or had any political dealings beyond chatting about politics, as millions of people do, in a social context.’ Sir Alan also declined to comment.
The Lobby series will be shown on Al Jazeera’s English channel from January 15.