Click here for a PDF copy of our new pamphlet: The New Middle East
Labour Friends of Israel is proud to publish The New Middle East: A Progressive Approach, a collection of essays exploring the dramatic changes in the Middle East in the last decade, and asking how Labour foreign policy should respond to these.
The New Middle East explores a wide range of subjects, from demographic shifts, the malign regional influence of Iran, and the lessons Labour can learn from the Biden administration, in chapter contributions from Steve McCabe MP, Michael Herzog, Moran Zaga, John Lyndon, Huda Abuarquob, Emman El-Badawy, Baroness Ramsay of Cartvale and Gary Kent.
Most importantly, the pamphlet argues that Labour’s foreign policy focus must be broadened beyond the “distorting and narrow” obsession with Israel-Palestine that became entrenched under Jeremy Corbyn.
Labour should engage in “the important debate that an aspiring party of government must have” about its approach to the Middle East, LFI chair Steve McCabe, MP for Birmingham Selly Oak, argues in his opening chapter.
McCabe’s chapter also outlines a number of “principles for a progressive foreign policy” that Labour should adopt, including: support for democracy; consistent support for oppressed groups across the region; support for regional peacebuilding efforts; and a constructive and even-handed approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Responding to the pamphlet’s publication, LFI chair Steve McCabe said:
“I’m delighted that LFI’s new pamphlet, The New Middle East: A Progressive Approach, has been published.
This is an important contribution from LFI to the timely debate on the future of Labour’s foreign policy approach towards the Middle East.
Recent years have seen an obsessive focus on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict within the Labour Party, which has obscured our ability to respond to the seismic shifts taking place in the wider region.
This pamphlet is a useful corrective to that problem, laying out many of the ongoing changes and the principles necessary for Labour’s foreign policy to match its aspirations as a responsible party of government under Keir Starmer.”
The pamphlet was formally launched at a virtual event at 6pm on Tuesday 13th July. You can watch the full event below.
