The Reaction of British Jewry to Suez, 1956 / by Raphael Langham

copy. Anthony Eden ordered the British copy to be destroyed, the French copy was conveniently lost, but the Israeli one became officially available in 1996 and a copy in the original French can be found in the Public Records Office.

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As the events emerged opinion in Britain split. Feelings for and against the war were strong and divided the country. Analogies have been made with the Iraq war and my recollection is that much the same sort of emotional response swept the country. Marches and public meetings were held mainly of those against the war, but there were two major differences compared with Iraq. The opposition in Parliament was against the policy of the government, as was the United States.
Two government ministers resigned. The first was Anthony Nutting the Minister of State at the Foreign Office. He was well known as anti-Israel and a supporter of the Arab cause. Anthony Eden is believed to have told him early in October when Nutting had proposed some sort of action against Israel that 'I will not allow you to plunge this country into war merely to satisfy the anti-Jewish spleen of you people in the Foreign Office'. A most revealing remark as many Jews in this country were of the view that the Foreign Office was anti-Jewish and pro-Arab, and here we have the Prime Minister who had been Foreign Secretary on three occasions - before, during and after the second world war - confirming this.
The other minister who resigned was Sir Edward Boyle, the Economic Secretary to the Treasury. He found himself in difficulty with his local constituency conservative association. At the meeting he had with them he found only one supporter of his stance. Afterwards he thanked her for backing him and she replied 'Oh yes, I have always thought that all the troubles of the world were caused by the Jews'.
As far as the newspapers were concerned they were also split. Those in favour of the British action included the Express, the Mail, the Telegraph, the Sunday Times and the Sunday Express. Those against included The Mirror, the News Chronicle, the Daily Herald, the Manchester Guardian, the Observer and the People. The Times sat on the fence. Only the Manchester Guardian and the Observer were against the Israeli invasion. Plus ca change plus c'est la meme chose.
Public opinion polls taken on 1 and 2 November showed that 40% supported the British intervention, 46% were against and 14% didn't know.
When we come to the reaction of the Jewish community we find that there was a huge row. It had nothing to do with being for or against the Israeli attack nor for or against the British government's actions, but it was entirely parochial. On 1 November the Labour party tabled a vote of no confidence in the Government's policy and all 17 Jewish Labour MPs supported this motion, including Barnet Janner then President of both the Board of Deputies and the Zionist Federation. The voting for this motion by the Jewish Labour MPs created an emotional outburst in the community. At a public meeting in the East End the main speaker said that Jewish MP should not forget their racial origins irrespective of their political affiliations. This speech was widely reported in the National and Jewish press and led to much correspondence and demands that Barnett Janner should resign as President of the Board of Deputies.
Once it became clear that the British intervention was not against Israel, accusations were levelled against Jews who were opposed to the British action of being unpatriotic and anti-Israel. Whilst doing my research for this paper I recalled