Tam Dalyell claims Zionist 'fluence on Tony Blair

Information Clearing House follow up remarks by Linlithgow MP Labour Tam Dalyell, the Father of the House, says Blair aides are skewing British foreign policy on the Middle East in favour of the Israeli government.

Dalyell suggests Blair was "unduly influenced" by figures including Lord Levy, Labour’s chief fund-raiser and Blair’s unofficial envoy to the region, Peter Mandelson, and Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, an Anglican who had a Jewish grandfather.

Dyell was quoted by Vanity Fair writer David Margolick latest edition of the American magazine Vanity Fair in a profile of Blair. In a passage on Blair’s "staunch" support of Israel,Tam is quoted: "The senior member of the House of Commons, Tam Dalyell, even tells me he thinks Blair is unduly influenced by a cabal of Jewish advisers. He mentions Mandelson, Lord Levy and Jack Straw."

Scotland on Sunday checked the quote with Dalyell, he replied: "I’m very open about this. I wouldn’t say I’ve been misquoted."

Dalyell, the longest-serving MP in the Commons, said hawks in Washington were already too close to the right-wing Likud government of Israeli leader Ariel Sharon.

Dalyell told Scotland on Sunday: "Blair and Straw have become far too close to these people and Lord Levy, who is an unaccountable ambassador in the Middle East, is part of this group. They are acting on an extremely Zionist, Likud-nik agenda. In particular I am concerned that some of them are pushing for an attack on Syria, for reasons of Israeli security.

"It is an enormously sensitive issue and that’s why very many of us have been extremely reticent about it, because we don’t want to be seen as anti-Semitic."