Liz Truss Takes the Helm

  By Henry Srebrnik, [Charlottetown, PEI] Guardian

On Sept. 5, Liz Truss became the United Kingdom’s third female prime minister, and the fourth leader of the Conservative Party’s government since a general election in 2015.

She takes the helm at a time when the country faces a cost-of-living crisis, industrial unrest, and a recession triggered by skyrocketing inflation, which is above 10 per cent for the first time since the 1980s.

And, of course, she is now the country’s leader under a new monarch, King Charles III, following the death of Queen Elizabeth II just days after Truss became prime minister.

Truss comes from a very different background than her predecessor, Boris Johnson, the Eton and Oxford educated son of a Conservative politician.

She is the daughter of a Leeds University professor and a nurse. She made her own way to Conservatism from a very left-wing household via a stint as an antimonarchist Liberal Democrat.

FRIENDS AND ALLIES

Truss came into the top job after a stint as foreign secretary, preceded by two years as secretary of state for trade. This has provided ample chance for Truss to speak her mind on Britain’s place in the world.

So, what can we say about Liz Truss’s view of UK relations with Israel, which faces its own pivotal election at the beginning of November?

“Anyone who believes in strengthening the relationship between Britain and Israel should be delighted by the appointment,” suggested Ian Austin, a former Labour MP who now serves as an independent member of the House of Lords and the prime ministerial trade envoy to Israel.

“There is no doubt about her support for Israel and its right to defend itself.”

In Truss’s mental map of the world, in which sovereign free-trading nations are pitted against aggressive authoritarians, Israel sits firmly in the former category. Israel’s inclusion in Truss’s list of “friends and allies” that she mentioned in a speech to the annual Conservative Party conference in Manchester in October 2021 was not an isolated example, with Israel referred to repeatedly as an example of a democratic partner that excels in innovation.

Truss has also pointed to the Nov. 29, 2021 bilateral agreement she negotiated with then-foreign minister and future Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid, which committed Britain and Israel to closer co-operation on cybersecurity, technology, defence, trade, science, climate innovation and international development.

“Both the UK and Israel are outward-looking, patriotic nations, who are natural likeminded partners,” she suggested this past July. As prime minister, she wants to bring down trade barriers between Israel and Britain and work towards an “advanced free trade agreement that supports jobs and drives growth.”

EMBASSY LOCATION

Lapid and Truss also agreed to work “night and day” to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear arsenal. Truss reiterated that pledge in a talk in August, saying she would “do what it takes” along with the UK’S global and regional allies to stop that from happening.

Truss also described putting her foot down with foreign office diplomats by insisting they stand up to an anti-israel agenda in the UN Human Rights Council.

“Bodies like the Human Rights Council have been used to peddle a particular agenda which frankly have strong elements of antisemitism.”

She also noted that, in pursuing her stance, she had been forced to “overrule” officials at the foreign office who cautioned her against leaving the UK internationally isolated.

At a meeting at the United Nations General Assembly session in New York, the prime minister told Lapid Sept. 21 about a “review of the current location” of the British Embassy in Israel, hinting it may be moved from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

Of course, many oppose the idea, and wonder how London’s credibility would be taken seriously on Ukraine if it accepted this move.

The Israeli prime minister tweeted his thanks to Truss for “positively considering” the move.

“We will continue to strengthen the partnership between the countries,” he wrote. Clearly, relations between the two countries are, certainly for now, quite cordial.