FORMER Tory Minister Alan Duncan has done democracy a service by calling out the nefarious influence of Israel’s friends in high places.

He has spotlighted the role of Conservative Friends of Israel (CFI) in trying to distort British politics in the interests of a foreign power.

This is not a conspiracy theory. CFI, like its Labour counterpart, operates in plain sight and is brazen about its intentions. Nor is it tied to Jewish identity — most Tory MPs of all backgrounds are members.

Unqualified support for Israel has long since become a rallying point for international imperialism, neoconservatism and reactionaries of all hues.

CFI’s objectives, according to Alan Duncan, are to advance the agenda of Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party and the far-right government it leads, and to block criticism of Israel’s illegal settlement programme in the Palestinian territories.

Duncan, himself a target of Israeli subversion as revealed in the Al Jazeera exposé that also showed covert intervention in the Labour Party, goes so far as to suggest two Tory peers — Lords Polak and Pickles — should be evicted from the Lords because they serve a foreign state.

He also called for the dismissal of Security Minister Tom Tugendhat on account of his rejection of any condemnation of the settlements on the West Bank.

Indeed, the present slaughter in Gaza should lead to a closer examination of both Conservative Friends of Israel and Labour Friends of Israel (LFI).

While there is a democratic right to argue for even the most objectionable causes, and all sorts of citizens champion the interests of foreign states for a range of ideological, religious or identity reasons, organised lobbying for Israel today risks crossing a line.

The International Court of Justice has found that Israel has a case to answer for genocide, and the evidence unfolds daily before our eyes.

A senior Tory MP has conceded that the government has received legal advice suggesting Israel is breaching international law.

Certainly Israel has murdered several British aid workers, among others, this week, possibly using British-supplied weapons to do so.

The political and legal case for halting all British arms transfers to Israel is overwhelming. Six-hundred legal experts have written to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak demanding an end to such exports.

Under these circumstances, Israeli-backed lobbying organisations can only seem objectionable. They are pushing Britian into complicity in genocide and other potential illegalities.

At a time when both front benches are whipping themselves into a lather over “extremism” and barring contact with marginal organisations, here is surely a much clearer case.

Ministers and their Labour opposite numbers should refrain from any contact with these “friends of Israel” groups at least until Israel halts its Gaza genocide and comes into full compliance with international law, which must include a reversal of its settlement programme and apartheid regime on the West Bank.

The labour movement, in particular, should look askance at any Labour MP or parliamentary candidate affiliated to Labour Friends of Israel.

It is not a matter of “dual loyalty,” a charge which can become an anti-semitic trope when levelled against Jewish people.

Rather it is a question of upholding international law and common humanity against a state which hourly defies both.  You cannot be a friend of Israel and a friend of peace and justice.

If even a former Tory minister can recognise this truth, then so should the labour movement. Those who want to prioritise solidarity with a criminal regime should not be doing so from the parliamentary benches.

And any trade union offering support to LFI should cease doing so in the name of decency immediately.