Thatcher and Israel

Thatcher’s admiration for the Jewish tradition meant that she was instinctively well-disposed toward Israel, which she described as “one of the heroic sagas of our age.” She expressed her early support by joining organizations such as the Anglo-Israel Friendship League and the Conservative Friends of Israel while, as a member of the 1970-1974 Conservative government, she frequently asserted Israel’s case against the “traditional Tory Arabists” who dominated the Cabinet (for instance, she argued against Israel’s inclusion in the regional arms embargo imposed by Britain during the Yom Kippur War).

In fact, so closely was Thatcher identified with Israel in this period that the Foreign Office urged her to sever links with Jewish and pro-Israeli organizations when she became Conservative leader in February 1975 “to counter Arab fears and suspicions that [she was] already a prisoner of the Zionists.” (thanks AK)