Former British PM Margaret
Thatcher,
‘staunch friend of Israel,’ dies
April 8, 2013
(JTA)
-- Former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, who was considered a good
friend of Israel despite a rocky relationship with Prime Minister Menachem
Begin, has died.
Thatcher
died Monday after suffering a stroke. She was 87. Thatcher suffered from
dementia at the end of her life, which was dramatized in the 2011 movie "The
Iron Lady."
The
only female to serve as prime minister of Britain, she also was the longest
continuously serving prime minister in the 20th century, leading the country
and her Conservative Party from 1979 to 1990.
Thatcher
was supportive of Israel but had a troubled relationship with Begin, who served
two terms in the 1980s. She called Begin the "most difficult" man she had to
deal with, according to the Chronicle. She also strongly opposed Israel's
bombing of Iraq's Osirak nuclear reactor.
Israeli
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu mourned her passing in a statement.
"She
was truly a great leader, a woman of principle, of determination, of conviction,
of strength; a woman of greatness," Netanyahu said. "She was a staunch friend of
Israel and the Jewish people. She inspired a generation of political leaders. I
send my most sincere condolences to her family and to the government and people
of Great Britain."
Thatcher
had a strong relationship with U.S. President Ronald Reagan and together they
fought communism, leading to the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.
Her
Cabinets included several Jewish members, including Nigel Lawson, Malcolm
Rifkind, Keith Joseph and Leon Brittan, according to the Jewish Chronicle.
