In January 2024, politicians from 22 European countries traveled to meet with Israeli president and genocide inciter Isaac Herzog and military spokesman Peter Lerner, a London-born “commander of IDF social media activities.”

The delegation was led by Peter Mandelson, at the time a Labour member of the House of Lords, Britain’s unelected upper chamber. It was taken to Kfar Aza, a settlement near Gaza. The group also had dinner with Gideon Saar, who became Israeli foreign minister just two months after the visit.

The Mandelson-led trip was paid for by ELNET, a shadowy lobby group that refuses to reveal its donors, but names the Israeli foreign ministry as one of its “partners”. Past attendees of their events include former Conservative UK prime ministers David Cameron and Rishi Sunak. ELNET’s UK branch is led by ex-Labour MP Joan Ryan, a former chair (and now honorary president) of Labour Friends of Israel (LFI) and vice-president of the All-Party Britain-Israel Parliamentary Group.

Ryan was also a key figure in the struggle to overthrow Corbyn, as well as a close ally of fellow LFI supporter and now Labour’s “Safeguarding Minister” Jess Phillips.

In one of ELNET’s online briefings, Mandelson told Lerner: “The [Israeli] government might be better off if it listened more to the IDF … If you can pass on that one.”

Another ELNET briefing was attended by John Woodcock, now the Starmer government’s adviser on political violence and disruption, a position he was appointed to by former Conservative PM Boris Johnson in 2020.