HOME | NEWS | THE MAGAZINE | BOOKS | SITEMAP | EMAIL
				Barak Visit To Forge Links With Britain

By Alan Philps in Jerusalem, July 19, 1999

THE Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Barak, visits London on Wednesday to pay a debt of gratitude and to lay the foundations for a possible political and diplomatic alliance with Britain.

He will have breakfast with Tony Blair on his way back from Washington, where he has been informing the Clinton administration of his plans for peace with Syria and a final settlement with the Palestinians.

During Mr Barak's election campaign, New Labour provided a lot of advice to help the Israeli Labour party transform itself into a more voter-friendly centrist coalition, called One Israel.

Yossi Beilin, a senior Labour party figure and now Justice Minister, said: "We learned a lot from our British sister party. The Blair revolution showed us that we have to move to the centre, to become liberal not socialist, and it underlined the vital importance of relations with the press."

Mr Barak, known more for his strategic vision than for his charm, learned to keep his party "on message" during the election campaign. The old guard Leftists were told to keep their mouths shut. In one direct borrowing from New Labour, he distributed "pledge cards" with seven campaign promises.

And there are high hopes in Jerusalem that Mr Blair can be useful in the Middle East, not least in curbing the ambitions of the European Union to play a bigger role. An Israeli diplomat said: "We hope Blair can moderate the tradition of European Union grandstanding. The Europeans are always telling us what is right and it is not helpful to be dictated to."

Europe has long sought a bigger role in the Middle East. The EU practically keeps Yasser Arafat's Palestinian Authority afloat with injections of aid. Mr Barak is trying to reduce the American role in Israel's affairs in favour of direct contacts between Israel and the Syrians on the one hand and the Palestinians on the other. European intervention would only complicate matters.