The global network of Israel’s friends

Published in the Jerusalem Post, 24 November 2025

With Israel the object of so much vilification from prominent individuals, organizations, UN agencies, and judicial bodies, it is good to consider the work of the worldwide pro-Israel advocacy organization called the Israel Allies Foundation.

          The IAF coordinates the pro-Israel activities of scores of parliamentary groups across the globe. Sharing a faith-based belief in Israel’s right to exist in peace, the members of these groups translate their support into political action within their home countries’ legislatures. In the US and some other countries, such groups are known as caucuses; in others, they’re known as lobbies or pressure groups.

          On November 10, Albania’s parliament in Tirana became the 64th national parliament to welcome an IAF caucus, bringing together members of its Socialist and Democratic parties.

The IAF traces its beginnings to 2004, when a group of Knesset members, noting the growing support for Israel in the Christian world, formed the Knesset Christian Allies Caucus. Spanning the spectrum of political parties in Israel, the group aimed to develop better ties between Knesset members and pro-Israel Christian leaders worldwide. In 2006, the US House of Representatives formed the first reciprocal lobby – the Congressional Israel Allies Caucus.

          The IAF itself was formed in 2007 and since then has established a widespread network of pro-Israel politicians. The organization says its purpose, based on Judeo-Christian values, is to promote cooperation among politicians worldwide who support the right of the State of Israel to exist in peace with secure borders.

          Over the past year, the IAF has undertaken an impressive programme. It convened top lawmakers in a concerted effort to oppose determinations of the International Criminal Court widely perceived as hostile to Israel. It published the 2025 edition of the “Israel’s Top 50 Christian Allies” list to honor faith leaders supporting Israel worldwide, and in July, it launched new caucuses in six African countries: Ethiopia, Ivory Coast, Lesotho, Seychelles, Gabon, and Guinea, expanding faith-based support for Israel on the continent.

          In addition, it coordinated the passage of high-profile parliamentary resolutions condemning antisemitism, especially in Canada, and organized joint marches with both Jewish and Christian parliamentarians against Holocaust denial and hate crimes.

          Not least, it has organized international diplomacy conferences, such as the Oslo Symposium, held in February/March 2025, to counter antisemitism and anti-Zionism in Europe. The Symposium, largely indebted to the Norway-Israel Allies Caucus, saw intensified efforts to strengthen Israel-Norway relations and counter rising antisemitism and diplomatic friction arising from the Gaza conflict.

          In May, the US Congressional Israel Allies Caucus celebrated Israel’s Independence Day with a major advocacy day involving more than 300 rabbis, pastors, congresspeople, and international guests. It followed this with a reception on Capitol Hill. With bipartisan participation from lawmakers and international dignitaries, the event showcased cross-continental support for Israel.

          The IAF’s pro-Israel advocacy program is set to gather momentum in 2026. A major $200 million US-Israel joint fund for quantum and AI research – possibly expanded to include Gulf states and other Abraham Accords nations – is planned to begin operations in the new year. The fund aims to facilitate joint research and development, regional research hubs, and broader geopolitical alignment and is backed by Israeli, American, UAE, and Saudi stakeholders.

          Perhaps the most important, and potentially the most impactful, undertaking of the IAF has been its partnership with the Genesis Prize Foundation in support of the “Isaac Accords.” The Isaac Accords, modelled on the Abraham Accords, are a diplomatic initiative by Argentinian President Javier Milei aimed at strengthening ties between Israel and a range of Latin American countries.

          Milei officially launched the Isaac Accords on August 12, 2025, announcing the initiative as a comprehensive effort to deepen diplomatic, economic, and cultural relations between Israel and select Latin American countries.

          “The Isaac Accords,” he said at the launch, “are a vehicle to promote bold vision and encourage other Latin American leaders to stand with Israel, confront antisemitism, and reject the ideologies of terror that threaten our shared values and freedoms. They seek to foster close cooperation between Latin American governments and Israel in areas crucial to development, security, and prosperity.”

          The American Friends of the Isaac Accords (AFOIA), founded by The Genesis Prize Foundation using Milei’s prize funds, is supporting the program, which includes cooperation in areas such as agriculture, cyberdefense, finance, water technology, energy, healthcare, education, and culture.

          The AFOIA also provides grants and supports programs connecting Israeli technological and medical expertise with Latin American markets, mobilizing pro-Israel politicians, and building educational and grassroots exchanges. The Accords have already launched several collaboration projects, including the ILAN Israel Innovation Network and new healthcare, education, and political engagement programs.

          In short, the Isaac Accords aim to broaden economic, diplomatic, cultural, and educational cooperation at a time when much of Latin America is distancing itself from Israel. They intend to create a multilateral network of support for Israel in Latin America built on biomedical, tech, educational, and diplomatic projects, with both clear achievements and expansive ambitions for the coming years.

          The initiative began with Israel, Argentina, Uruguay, Panama, and Costa Rica and has ambitions to expand to Brazil, Colombia, Chile, and possibly El Salvador by 2026. Also in the frame for the future are the three Latin American countries that have moved their Israel embassies to Jerusalem: Guatemala, Honduras, and Paraguay. They joined the US, Kosovo, and Papua New Guinea in bringing the number of Jerusalem-sited embassies to six.

          Paraguay’s President Santiago Pena formally inaugurated the embassy in Jerusalem on December 12, 2024, a result of Paraguay’s longstanding pro-Israel policy.

          So despite a global context where some Latin American states are cutting or downgrading ties with Israel, the Isaac Accords have consolidated a core bloc of pro-Israel countries and elevated bilateral trade and innovation exchanges.

          As for the Israel Allies Foundation Europe, it plans further expansion in 2026 of its network of parliamentary caucuses. It will be targeting countries that currently lack active parliamentary IAF groups in Central, Eastern, and Southern Europe, and possibly Scandinavia. Alongside extending the current network, the IAf intends to reinforce existing caucuses throughout Europe by way of a proactive policy of regional conferences and thematic campaigns.

          How goes that British saying? More power to their elbow!

Published in the Jerusalem Post and the Jerusalem Post online titled: "Israel Allies Foundation expands global pro-Israel network", 24 November 2025:
https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-874864

Published in Eurasia Review, 28 November 2025:

https://www.eurasiareview.com/28112025-the-global-network-of-israels-friends-oped/

Rebuilding Gaza

 Published in the Jerusalem Post, 17 November 2025

Sooner or later the regeneration of Gaza will have to be tackled.  Before too long, assuming the ceasefire holds, the nations which support President Donald Trump’s peace plan will be initiating a reconstruction program – a task so huge in scale and cost that it nearly beggars the imagination.  In mid-October the UN Development Program (UNDP), World Bank, and EU jointly raised their estimate for full reconstruction to about $70 billion, replacing the earlier $53 billion estimate.

Preliminary but essential steps, especially in Gaza City but also throughout the Strip.  will be to remove the mountains of rubble, clear away unexploded ordnance, and provide temporary housing for families returning to mere bomb sites.

            After that, an early priority will be to build hundreds of thousands of new permanent housing units.  Allied to this will be the construction of necessary infrastructure such as water and sewage, electricity and gas grids, roads, telecommunication networks, shops and markets.  Egypt’s widely backed plan for the reconstruction of Gaza, officially adopted and endorsed by the Arab League on March 4, remains a central blueprint for the coordinated multi-national recovery agenda for Gaza.  It envisages “a commercial port and an airport”, together with industrial and commercial zones to include factories and warehouses.

   The whole reconstruction project is expected to last at least a decade, and the US-backed Board of Peace is being established to supervise the financing and contracting process.​

WIRED, a respected monthly publication, is focused on how technology can impact positively on culture, business, and science. On October 14 it featured a comprehensive plan to reconstruct Gaza.  Conceived by a small group of entrepreneurs, it had, they affirmed, been shared with Trump administration officials.  When discussing the lucrative contracts that will be on offer once the program gets under way, it highlighted more than two dozen multinational corporations (some of whom told WIRED they did not know they had been named).

 In fact the Gaza rebuilding environment is already a fiercely contested global marketplace. The reconstruction process has triggered intense lobbying and bidding from dozens of international consortia.​ Leading Turkish and Egyptian construction firms are already openly competing for contracts against major players from the US, Britain, the EU, the Gulf states, and beyond. 

Gulf states, especially Qatar and the UAE, have pledged funds and are pressing to influence the process.  Western diplomatic efforts, such as joint investment conferences hosted by Britain, Egypt, and Palestinian authorities, underline the competitive scramble for Gaza contracts.

Turkey’s involvement in Trump’s peace plan is heavily driven by self-interest — a mix of geopolitical ambition, economic opportunity, and domestic political gain.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan views the peace initiative as a vehicle for reasserting Turkey’s regional power and enhancing its industrial sector. Turkish officials have openly said they aim to play a leading role in rebuilding Gaza, and Turkish construction and aid organizations are already active. Turkey’s Humanitarian Relief Foundation (IHH) has begun clearing debris and reopening roads in Gaza, and Turkish authorities have stated they are ready to “mobilize companies, institutions, and financial mechanisms” for the wider reconstruction. Turkish firms are preparing bids for contracts covering infrastructure, housing, ports, and utilities.​

Egyptian contractors are also aggressively positioning themselves for the rebuilding phase. Cairo-based firms are compiling bids and prequalification documents, aiming to leverage Egypt’s proximity, supply chains, and construction materials surplus.

US firms are expected to participate. Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff confirmed that while “contractors from all of the Middle Eastern countries” are already in discussions, American companies — particularly in technology, infrastructure, and logistics — will have access through the Board of Peace procurement process. Major pro-Trump tech investors are rumored to be preparing to fund reconstruction-linked ventures.​

Erdogan’s ambition to dominate the Sunni Muslim world has long been an irritant in Arab circles.  On October 20, Arab political commentator Ayman Abdel Nour said:  "Erdogan is a master in…taking advantage of events, turning them to his own interest and taking credit for them.  Obviously the Gulf countries were not happy about Turkey taking a leading role on Gaza, but at the same time they wanted this conflict to end, to see an agreement and to see Hamas sidelined."

Lebanese analyst Sarkis Naoum said that while Arab states shared an interest with Turkey in ending the war, recalling the long history of Ottoman imperial rule in the region Turkey’s increased prominence was a worry for them.

Erdogan’s hostility toward Israel has been amply demonstrated time and again, yet even as he vilifies prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu in public, he has consistently demonstrated a calculated pragmatism.  Turkish and Israeli defense and intelligence contacts remain in place and operational, particularly in counterterrorism and energy coordination.  

In his recent article on Turkish-Israel relations, Joseph Epstein describes this dynamic as “cooperation through gritted teeth”.

Basically Erdogan, while publicly maintaining his antisemitic or anti-Zionist narrative, actually pursues a strategy, incorporating cooperation with Israel, aimed at securing geopolitical and economic benefits.​ Erdogan’s anti-Israel stance, says Epstein, is largely public posturing that disguises a transactional engagement strategy.

Erdogan’s agreement to back Trump’s Gaza peace plan, for example, gained him renewed goodwill in Washington, helped toward lifting US sanctions, securing F-16 and F-35 fighter aircraft, and obtaining mediation influence in postwar Syria and Gaza.  By vilifying Israel publicly while cooperating with it under US sponsorship, he satisfies nationalist and Islamist audiences at home, preserves strategic flexibility abroad, and repositions Turkey as an indispensable intermediary in the new Middle East order.

The list of potential commercial and industrial organizations keen to become involved in the lucrative opportunities soon to be on offer in Gaza is large and growing.  Companies like the Saudi Arabian Saudi Tabreed (district cooling) and the state-owned United Arab Emirates Masdar (renewable energy) are in the running to benefit from Gaza's multi-billion reconstruction plan. In addition, Middle East SWFs (Sovereign Wealth Funds) are accelerating investments in projects like green energy, possibly integral to Gaza’s plan.  US firms with expertise in post-conflict security systems are likely to secure contracts.  

In short, Gaza’s forthcoming regeneration program offers significant investment, industrial and commercial opportunities for a wide range of potential players both regional and international.  The game is afoot.

Published in the Jerusalem Post and the Jerusalem Post online titled: "The game is afoot: the race to rebuild Gaza and win its major investment opportunities", 17 November 2025:
https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-874017

Published in Eurasia Review, 21 November 2025:

https://www.eurasiareview.com/21112025-rebuilding-gaza-oped/

BBC bias – new turmoil

Published in the Jerusalem Post, 10 November 2025

November 9 saw the resignations of both Tim Davie, BBC Director-General and Deborah Turness, its head of news.

It was only two months ago, on September 9, that the Culture, Media and Sport Committee of the House of Commons summoned Davie and BBC Chairman, Dr Samir Shah, to answer in person allegations of bias, editorial failures, and recent scandals, including how the BBC had come to transmit a TV program about the Gaza war that turned out to have been narrated by the son of a Hamas official. 

Shortly afterward, the broadcasting regulator Ofcom found that the film was "materially misleading", and ordered the BBC to tell its audience as much.  It was removed from the streaming service.

 Now a new furor is brewing.  On November 4 the UK’s Daily Telegraph revealed the contents of a 19-page whistle-blowing document, already circulated to the 14 members of the BBC Board of Governors, listing numerous examples of blatant bias in BBC news coverage. References to the Gaza war abound, and it also cites one egregious instance of deliberately faked news.

         Michael Prescott is a respected journalist who served as adviser to the BBC’s Editorial Guidelines and Standards Committee (EGSC) for three years.  He resigned in June 2025 because, as he explained, his repeated warnings about systemic bias and misleading coverage had been dismissed or ignored.  Direct appeals to BBC’s top executives, including the chairman, he said, had resulted in no meaningful response.  It was the consequent frustration, leading eventually to despair, that prompted his resignation.

Out of office, Prescott wrote his 19-page memo, which includes a prime example of unethical editorial action already reported by him to senior management with no result.  Its publication by the Telegraph has plunged the BBC into crisis.

Just ahead of the US 2024 presidential election the BBC broadcast an edition of its flagship current affairs program “Panorama”.  It contained a version of Donald Trump’s January 6, 2021 speech, made just after he had lost that election to Joe Biden. The speech was deliberately “doctored” to make it appear that Trump had incited the riots in the Capitol that followed.

What Trump said was: "We're going to walk down to the Capitol, and we're going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women."

However, in Panorama's edit, he was shown saying: "We're going to walk down to the Capitol... and I'll be there with you. And we fight. We fight like hell."

The two sections of the speech that were edited together were more than 50 minutes apart.  The "fight like hell" comment was taken from a section where President Trump discussed how "corrupt" US elections were.

Following the doctored speech, the program cut to scenes of flag-waving individuals and the Proud Boys group marching toward the Capitol, the clear implication being that Trump’s words had led to the march.  In fact the marching sequence had been filmed before Trump began to speak.

When the issue was raised with managers, said Prescott, they "refused to accept there had been a breach of standards".

Another issue that particularly concerned Prescott relates to BBC Arabic, the TV and digital news service. He reveals that throughout the Gaza war it gave a platform to contributors known to have made extreme antisemitic comments.

One journalist who had said online that Jews should be burned “as Hitler did”, appeared as a guest on BBC Arabic 244 times in 18 months.  Another, who described Israelis as less than human and Jews as “devils”, appeared on BBC Arabic 522 times between November 2023 and April 2025.

Prescott describes the “critically different treatment” between the main BBC news website and BBC Arabic of a rocket attack on a football game in the village of Majdal Shams in the Golan Heights in July 2024 that claimed the lives of nine children.  BBC Arabic gave greater prominence to Hezbollah’s denials, did not mention the deaths of children, and the next day followed up with a report about claims that Israel faked the attack.

“It is hard to conclude anything other than that BBC Arabic’s story treatment was designed to minimize Israeli suffering and paint Israel as the aggressor,” wrote Prescott.

He refers to a report delivered to the EGCS in January 2025 by its senior editorial adviser.  In a period under review the main BBC website had 19 separate stories about the Israeli hostages, while BBC Arabic had none. There were four articles critical of Hamas on the main website and none on BBC Arabic, but every article critical of Israel that appeared on the main website was replicated by BBC Arabic.

 That, said Prescott, "should have prompted urgent action by the Executive but it did not.” Nor did a number of other examples.   

For instance, an internal review of the BBC’s reporting on the death toll in Gaza concluded that the BBC had given “unjustifiable weight” to highly disputed figures emanating from Hamas.  Moreover the BBC repeatedly stated on radio and TV, by Jeremy Bowen, the BBC’s International Editor, among others, that the International Court of Justice had ruled in January 2024 that there was a “plausible case of genocide” in Gaza.  But the former ICJ president, Judge Joan Donoghue, told the BBC’s HardTalk program that the media had widely misinterpreted its findings, and it was not correct to say the ICJ had found a plausible case of genocide.  It took months for the BBC to issue a clarification.

The parliamentary committee will be questioning Prescott this coming Wednesday. It has also written to BBC chairman Samir Shah, demanding answers about the broadcaster’s impartiality. 

Culture Minister Lisa Nandy has told the BBC it must “thoroughly investigate” the issues that Prescott has brought to light.

Trump's press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, described the speech doctored by the BBC as "purposefully, dishonestly, selectively edited,"  and condemned the broadcaster for disseminating "fake news".    

Several organizations, including CAMERA (Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis), have claimed the memo vindicates their longstanding complaints about BBC coverage of Israel and antisemitism.  Political figures, including Opposition leader Kemi Badenoch and former prime minister Boris Johnson, have demanded explanations and consequences for those responsible for editorial misconduct at the BBC.

The resignations of Davie and Turness will bring no end to this ruckus.

Published in the Jerusalem Post and the Jerusalem Post online titled: "Whistleblower journalist exposes BBC bias", 10 November 2025:

https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-873221

Ireland’s anti-Israel president

 Published in the Jerusalem Post, 3 November 2025

On October 26 the people of Ireland voted overwhelmingly for Catherine Connolly as their new president.  Receiving 63% of first-preference votes, she broke a record in Irish presidential election history and won a landslide victory.

Connolly, a left-wing politician with a history of pro-Palestinian advocacy and anti-Israel invective, is one of Europe’s most outspoken critics of Israel’s conduct of the war in Gaza.  She has labelled Israel “a terrorist state”, asserted that “Israel has committed genocide in Gaza”, and has pledged to “stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people as long as I have breath in my body”.

In speeches before her election she condemned Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel as a war crime, but criticized the Irish government and EU institutions for “standing idly by” and failing to enforce the Genocide Convention against Israel. She called for sanctions.​

Approving the recent recognition of Palestinian statehood by a clutch of governments, she disagreed with those who insisted that Hamas should be excluded from the future governance of Gaza.  She said it is “not for” foreign leaders like UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer to dictate who governs Palestinians, maintaining that “Hamas is part of the fabric of the Palestinian people”, having been “democratically elected”.

Her stance on Gaza, Hamas and Israel featured prominently during her presidential campaign.  It led, inevitably, to strong opposition from Jewish and pro-Israel voices. Even some political allies distanced themselves from her comments.

Those opposing her views clearly had only a minimal effect on the result of the election.  What Connolly’s overwhelming victory clearly demonstrates is the overwhelmingly strong pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel current in Irish public opinion. 

The Irish people and their leaders have for decades seemed fixated on the idea that the situation in what was once Mandate Palestine is a sort of reiteration of their own struggle for independence.

Most Irish politicians and commentators on the subject seem blind to the historic and inextricable connection of the Jewish people to the Holy Land, and the fact that on July 24, 1922 the Council of the League of Nations voted unanimously in favor of establishing a national home for the Jewish people in Palestine.  Nor that on November 29, 1947 the UN General Assembly voted to divide Palestine into two states, one Jewish and the other Arab.

Majority Irish opinion regards the Palestinian Arabs as a Middle East version of themselves, struggling against ruthless colonialist settlers – the English in their case, Israel as regards the Palestinians. Their own unhappy history bolsters their myopic and misguided view of the situation, devoid as it is of any sort of empathy with the centuries of persecution suffered by the Jewish people, the consequent rise of Zionism, and the UN-endorsed establishment of Israel after two thousand years of the Jewish people’s stateless exile.

Ireland recognized the State of Israel shortly after its creation in 1948, but was cautious in establishing formal diplomatic relations. It was 1993 before it allowed Israel to open an embassy in Dublin – the last EU member to do so.​

On the other hand Ireland was the first EU country to recognize the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) officially.  It did so in 1980, ignoring the indisputable fact that by then the PLO and its affiliates were deeply mired in sometimes horrific acts of terror across the world including airline hijackings, hostage killings and the Munich Olympics massacre. 1980 itself witnessed cross-border attacks, bombings, and assaults on civilian targets in Israel and the occupied territories.

This aspect of the situation may have registered less of an impact in Ireland than it would have done elsewhere because by 1980 terrorism had been a norm on the Irish political scene for some twenty years.

Back in 1920, longstanding religious, political, and cultural differences in Ireland between the Catholic majority and the Protestant minority ​living mostly in its six north-eastern counties had led to the Government of Ireland Act, which partitioned the island into what was later to become an independent Republic, and Northern Ireland which remained part of the UK. 

Civil rights movements in Northern Ireland in the 1960s sought equal rights for Catholics. They were met with a violent backlash from Protestant groups loyal to Britain, and harsh policing by the Protestant-dominated government.  The old Irish Republican Army (IRA) split apart, producing the Provisional IRA, which adopted armed struggle as a means to defend Catholic communities and force British withdrawal from Northern Ireland.

There is documented connection between the IRA together with its Provisional offshoot and Palestinian terrorist organizations, particularly the PLO.  The IRA and PLO established contact in the late 1960s, with IRA members reportedly receiving training alongside Palestinian militants in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley.​  The PLO provided the Irish militants with expertise in guerrilla tactics, explosives, and urban terrorism strategies, later put to use when the Provisional IRA spread its terrorist activities to mainland Britain.

The Provisional IRA’s campaign of bombings, assassinations, and guerrilla warfare peaked during the 1970s and early 1980s. This was the height of “The Troubles,” as violence spread between republicans, loyalists, and British forces, leading to hundreds of deaths.

Sinn Fein, the political arm of the IRA, active in both parts of Ireland, has for decades expressed support for the Palestinian cause, and Irish-Palestinian solidarity is regularly invoked in public discourse across Ireland.​ Nevertheless, as the conflict gradually subsided in the 1990s due to exhaustion on all sides, the Sinn Fein party dedicated itself to pursuing Irish unity through negotiation.  Effective British counterterrorism and declining public support for violence culminated, after many months of painstaking negotiation, in the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, which established power-sharing in Northern Ireland and effectively ended the armed campaign.

UK opinion formers often suggest that this Republican-Loyalist détente should act as a template for resolving the perennial Israel-Palestine dispute. The factor that differentiates them is that neither side in Northern Ireland ever aimed to destroy the other’s people and occupy its territory, as both Fatah and Hamas have historically sought with regard to Israel.

If the Trump peace plan, which all sides have nominally accepted, manages to bypass that obstacle, a pathway to a permanent resolution of the dispute may yet emerge. 

Published in the Jerusalem Post, and the Jerusalem Post online titled: "Ireland's anti-Israel president: Connolly's victory shows where the public leans", 3 November 2025:
https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-872442

Published in Eurasia Review, 7 November 2025:

https://www.eurasiareview.com/07112025-irelands-anti-israel-president-oped/