A member of the official inquiry into the Iraq war has praised Gordon Brown just weeks before the Prime Minister gives evidence about his role in the conflict.
Sir Martin Gilbert said he was aware of the hard work undertaken by Mr Brown when he was asked to accompany him on an official visit to Israel last year.
The distinguished historian made the comments in an interview in which he condemned “anti-Semitic” criticism that two of the five Chilcot committee members are Jews.
He said more senior people should speak out against the “terrifying” rise anti-Semitism and anti-Israeli opinion in Britain.Sir Martin praised Mr Brown - who agreed last week to give evidence to the inquiry before the general election - for his support for Israel and Jews.
“One of the curious things about Britain today is that we have had this terrifying sort of rise in crude anti-Israel anti-Semitic feeling on the one hand, often fuelled by one or two newspapers,” he said.
“On the other hand we have a Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, who is totally committed to Israel and feels very close to Jewish people.
“He asked me to come with him last year when he came to the Knesset (the Israeli parliament) and I watched in the period before his visit just how carefully he worked on the visit... I was impressed he was spending so much time and effort to get it right.”
The comments in an interview to an Israeli radio station are likely to be seized upon by critics of Sir John Chilcot’s inquiry who have claimed that politicians, their advisors and senior civil servants have not faced tough enough questions from the committee.
The Prime Minister is expected to be questioned by the Iraq Inquiry about suggestions that Tony Blair told the United States that Britain would participate in the war a year before the invasion.
Mr Brown, who was Chancellor at the time of the war, will be asked to explain the budget for the Armed Forces after complaints from some commanders that soldiers had been left without sufficient body armour, helicopters and armoured vehicles.
Sir Martin said during the interview that he was delighted that being Jewish was not a bar to being a senior figure in public service in Britain but added that there should be more effort to challenge anti-Semitic hostility.
He said it was “appalling” that two national newspapers carried articles which said Jews should not be on the inquiry panel after he and the military historian Professor Sir Lawrence Freedman were appointed last year.
“When it was announced there as a really unpleasant series of newspaper articles in just two newspapers and also on the blogosphere pointing out that two of the five members of this commission of inquiry were Jews and saying that this would make us unsuitable because as Jews we would support Israel,” he said.
Sir Martin said: “I couldn't see what this had to do with Iraq except that they said that as Israel supported the war in Iraq and America supported it and America is of course controlled by the Zionist lobby therefore we would not be impartial in our inquiry because we would favour the war because Israel favoured the war.
“Well, apart from the fact, that as far as I can see, at that time Israel regarded Iran as a greater danger in March 2003, it is just appalling.”
“I mean, what were the religions or characteristics or ethnic backgrounds of the other three members? They were of no interest to these anti-Semites. So that was very unpleasant.”
Sir Martin, who describes himself as a proud practising Jew and Zionist, urged other senior figures to speak out during an hour-long interview with an online radio station which broadcasts from a Jewish settlement in the West Bank.
“I think the crude popular anti-Israel attitude here (in Britain) is something that I would like to see more senior figures speak out against,” he said. “It does happen but I think it has become serious enough now for more figures to do it.”
Sir Martin added: “I certainly don’t despair but it is not pleasant. People follow the trends and newspapers.... the two that are particularly hostile to Israel, have a tremendous influence.”
The articles criticised by Sir Martin were by Richard Ingrams in The Independent and by Sir Oliver Miles, a former British Ambassador to Libya, Greece and Luxembourg, in the Independent on Sunday.
Source:The Times
search the web
Custom Search
