Conservative Friends of Israel
British parliamentary group / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Dear Wikiwand AI, let's keep it short by simply answering these key questions:
Can you list the top facts and stats about Conservative Friends of Israel?
Summarize this article for a 10 year old
Conservative Friends of Israel (CFI) is a British parliamentary group affiliated to the Conservative Party, which is dedicated to strengthening business, cultural and political ties between the United Kingdom and Israel, as well as between the British Conservative Party and the Israeli Likud party.
It was founded in 1974 by Michael Fidler, the Conservative MP for Bury and Radcliffe.[1] The current Parliamentary Chairman is Stephen Crabb.[2]
In 1995 Conservative politician Robert Rhodes James called it "the largest organisation in Western Europe dedicated to the cause of the people of Israel".[3] By 2009, according to the Channel 4 documentary Dispatches – Inside Britain's Israel Lobby, around 80% of Conservative MPs were members of the CFI.[4] In 2013, the Daily Telegraph's chief political commentator, Peter Oborne, called CFI "by far Britain's most powerful pro-Israel lobbying group."[5]