Aked’s work is not a polemic about the rights and wrongs of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict itself, though its sympathies are clear. Rather, it is a political sociology of power. It asks a deceptively simple question: how does a foreign state, one frequently implicated in serious violations of international law, maintain such resilient and often unconditional support within the corridors of power in a major Western democracy? The answer, meticulously pieced together over the book’s chapters, reveals a complex ecosystem of advocacy groups, parliamentary factions, well-funded initiatives, and legal manoeuvres, all working in concert to reshape the political and legal landscape in Israel’s favour.
The book also demonstrates how CFI members are strategically placed in key government positions, from the Prime Minister’s office to the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, and defence portfolios. This ensures that pro-Israel sentiment is not a peripheral opinion but is embedded at the highest levels of decision-making. When policy discussions occur, the Israeli government’s line often has powerful, internal advocates. Aked provides concrete examples of how this influence has manifested, from the UK’s consistent opposition to Palestinian moves for statehood at the UN to its rhetorical shifts (or lack thereof) during Israeli military assaults on Gaza.
The "Israel-Advocacy Complex": Aked situates groups like CFI and LFI within a broader "Israel-advocacy complex" that includes think tanks, media monitoring organisations, and PR firms. BICOM, for instance, acts as a central hub, producing research, briefing papers, and talking points that are then disseminated to politicians, journalists, and other influencers.
If the cultivation of political friends is the soft power of the Israel-advocacy network, then lawfare is its hard edge. Aked devotes significant attention to how legal and quasi-legal mechanisms have been systematically deployed to chill speech, punish critics, and redefine the boundaries of acceptable discourse on Israel-Palestine. The most prominent example of this, which Aked analyses in depth, is the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism. On the surface, the definition appears to be a straightforward tool for combating Jew-hatred. However, Aked dissects the political project behind its adoption. The book details how pro-Israel groups, with the support of the Israeli government, launched a highly coordinated campaign to pressure local councils, universities, and ultimately the UK government to adopt the IHRA definition along with its contested contemporary examples. These examples include "claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor" and "applying double standards by requiring of it a behavior not expected or demanded of any other democratic nation."
Aked’s greatest analytical strength is in demonstrating that these two strategies; political influence and lawfare, are not separate tracks but are deeply symbiotic. The political influence cultivated in Westminster is essential for the effective deployment of lawfare, and the success of lawfare, in turn, strengthens the political position of Israel’s advocates. The campaign for the adoption of the IHRA definition is the quintessential example of this symbiosis. The lobbying power of groups like CFI and LFI was instrumental in pressuring the UK government to formally adopt the definition in 2016. This top-down endorsement then provided the ammunition for pro-Israel activists at the local level to demand that universities, local authorities, and other public bodies fall into line. The government’s adoption gave the definition a stamp of legitimacy, turning a politically contested document into an apparent gold standard for combating antisemitism. Conversely, the controversies generated by the application of the IHRA definition on campuses and in councils created a political demand for "clarity" and "action," which pro-Israel MPs were then able to exploit to push for even stricter enforcement and further marginalise critics.
This creates a self-perpetuating cycle. Political access enables the creation of a favourable legal and policy environment. This environment, in turn, empowers the network to apply pressure more effectively, demonstrating its continued relevance and power to its donors and to the Israeli government it seeks to please.
However, no work is without its limitations. One could argue that while Aked brilliantly documents the how, she perhaps under-explores the deeper why of this unwavering support from the British political class. The book touches on factors like the "special relationship" with the United States and shared neoliberal values, but a more profound exploration of the ideological and historical affinities might have been warranted. Is it solely about lobbying and donations, or is there a deeper resonance between a certain vision of a militarised, ethno-nationalist state and the worldview of a significant section of the British right? The book could have delved further into the ideological glue that binds CFI members so fervently to the cause, beyond the transactional politics of donations and trips.
Furthermore, while the focus on lawfare is sharp, some readers might wish for a more detailed discussion of the strategies of resistance. Aked documents the backlash, but a fuller exploration of how Palestine solidarity activists are adapting—developing their own legal resilience, building counter-narratives on antisemitism, and finding new avenues for political pressure—would have provided a more complete picture of the ongoing struggle.
The most striking contribution of Friends of Israel is its detailed mapping of the institutional channels through which pro-Israel influence is woven into the very fabric of British politics. Aked moves beyond the simplistic notion of a "lobby" as a shadowy cabal, instead presenting a diffuse but coordinated network. At the heart of this network are organisations like the Conservative Friends of Israel (CFI), Labour Friends of Israel (LFI), and BICOM (Britain Israel Communications and Research Centre).
Aked’s analysis of CFI is particularly illuminating. She describes it not as a casual parliamentary group but as a "key pillar of the British political establishment."
The book details how CFI functions as a formidable political machine. It is one of the largest and best-funded foreign policy groups in Parliament, boasting the support of a vast majority of Conservative MPs. Its influence is exerted through several key mechanisms:
Funding and Access: CFI facilitates significant financial donations from pro-Israel donors to the Conservative Party and individual MPs. This financial clout translates directly into access and a sympathetic ear. Aked documents how CFI-organised trips to Israel for MPs and journalists are meticulously curated, offering a "security-focused" tour that presents Israel’s perspective while often obscuring the realities of occupation for Palestinians. These trips are less about education and more about inoculation – building a cohort of politicians whose understanding of the conflict is filtered through a lens of Israeli security concerns, framing Palestinians primarily as a threat to be managed.
This creates a coherent and self-reinforcing echo chamber. A Conservative MP might receive a briefing from CFI, read a BICOM-sponsored report in a think tank publication, and then see the same arguments echoed by a commentator in a mainstream newspaper. The effect is to normalise pro-Israel positions and marginalise dissenting voices as extreme or illegitimate.
The book also tackles the more complex dynamics within the Labour Party, particularly during the Jeremy Corbyn era. Here, Aked analyses how groups like Labour Friends of Israel, alongside externally aligned organisations such as the Jewish Labour Movement and campaigns like the Enough is Enough anti-Semitism awareness tour, worked to tarnish the leadership and the broader Palestine solidarity movement by conflating criticism of Israel with antisemitism. Aked is careful not to dismiss the genuine concerns about antisemitism within the Labour party, but she meticulously distinguishes these from the politically motivated weaponisation of the issue to discredit a leadership that was historically sympathetic to the Palestinian cause. The anti-Corbyn backlash, as documented in the book, was in part a successful effort by the Israel-advocacy network to protect the bipartisan consensus on Israel by neutering a significant political threat.
Aked rightly argues that this was a masterstroke of lawfare. By embedding these politically charged examples into official policy, the Israel-advocacy network created a mechanism to legally and administratively sanction Palestine solidarity activism. The book provides numerous case studies of how the definition has been used:
On University Campuses: Student unions and academic bodies supporting the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement have been accused of antisemitism, triggering intimidating investigations and consuming vast resources. Even scholarly events examining the nature of Israel as a state have been threatened with cancellation under the IHRA guidelines.
In Local Government: Councillors who have supported motions to ethically screen their pension funds from companies involved in the occupation have faced disciplinary action, with their political opponents using the IHRA definition to allege they have created an "antisemitic environment."
The power of the IHRA definition, as Aked shows, is not that it consistently leads to successful legal convictions—it often doesn't. Its power lies in its chilling effect. It forces institutions to self-censor, to avoid contentious topics, and to divert energy from activism to legal defence. It creates a pervasive atmosphere of fear where criticising a state's policies is rendered perilously close to bigotry. This is lawfare not necessarily as a tool to win in court, but as a tool to win in the court of public opinion and institutional policy.
Beyond the IHRA definition, Aked explores other legalistic tactics. These include:
Employment Tribunals: The book discusses cases where individuals have lost their jobs or faced disciplinary action for expressing pro-Palestinian views, often following complaints orchestrated by pro-Israel groups.
Charity Commission Complaints: Palestine solidarity organisations, such as the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, have been subjected to repeated, vexatious complaints to the Charity Commission, forcing them to expend time and money defending their charitable status.
Defamation Threats: The threat of costly libel lawsuits is used to intimidate journalists and academics from publishing work critical of Israel or the advocacy network itself.
Through this multi-pronged legal assault, the network seeks to shrink the space for dissent. It re-frames a political conflict over land, rights, and military occupation as a question of racial hatred, thereby positioning its opponents not as political adversaries but as moral pariahs.
The Symbiotic Relationship: How Lawfare and Political Influence Reinforce Each Other
The ultimate goal, as Aked posits, is to achieve "ideological coercion"—a situation where support for Israel is seen as the default, commonsense position in British politics, while criticism is rendered not just politically costly, but legally and socially risky.
Friends of Israel is a formidable and essential work. Its rigour, its reliance on primary documents, interviews, and detailed case studies, makes its conclusions difficult to dismiss as mere conspiracy theory. It names names, traces money, and maps networks with academic precision. It provides a vocabulary and a framework for understanding the mechanics of a influence campaign that has, for too long, operated with a significant degree of impunity and lack of public scrutiny.
Despite these minor quibbles, Friends of Israel: The Backlash Against Palestine Solidarity is a landmark study. It is a sobering reminder that the battle over Palestine is not fought only with rockets in Gaza or protests in Ramallah, but in the committee rooms of Westminster, the council chambers of British towns, and the legal tribunals of universities. Hil Aked has pulled back the curtain on a sophisticated and powerful operation, revealing how a foreign policy consensus is manufactured and enforced. In an era where the gap between Western government policy and public opinion on Israel-Palestine is wider than ever, this book provides the critical toolkit for understanding how that gap is maintained. It is an indispensable read for anyone seeking to understand not just the politics of Israel-Palestine, but the very nature of power, influence, and dissent in modern Britain.
