Thatcher was also a great admirer of the State of Israel. She viewed Israel as a democratic, Western place surrounded by autocracies. Her daughter, Carol, had been a kibbutz volunteer. Thatcher’s admiration for Israel is expressed clearly in her memoirs: “The political and economic construction of Israel against huge odds and bitter adversaries is one of the heroic sagas of our age. They really made the desert bloom.” Moreover, the views of Israel’s supporters within the Finchley constituency would not have gone unnoticed by Thatcher.

Yet Thatcher did not view the Arab-Israel conflict in black-and-white terms. While she understood the dilemmas facing Israel, she was also from the generation that lived through the Mandate period. Thatcher’s hostile attitude toward Menachem Begin and Yitzhak Shamir (both prime ministers during her time in office) was influenced to some degree by their violent actions against the British prior to the establishment of the State of Israel.

Thatcher was a concerned friend of Israel. She feared that the continued failure to resolve the Arab-Israel conflict would be damaging both for Israel and western interests, in general. Her strong ideological opposition to the Soviet Union became an increasingly influential factor in her Middle East policy. The prime minister was worried that the Soviets would exploit their support for the Palestinians as a means to build influence in the Arab world at the expense of the West.