died in the Holocaust, is the youngest Home Secretary since Winston Churchill held that post early in the century.

Howe and Brittan are considered rightwing in their economic views but liberal on social issues. Neither has been as vocal in their expressions of friendship for Israel however as Cecil Parker, promoted to the office of Secretary for Trade and Industry. Parker, as guest speaker at last month’s dinner of the British-Israel Chamber of Commerce, delivered one of the most effusively pro-Israel speeches heard in London since the 1967 Six-Day War.

JANNER RE-ELECTED

His many Israeli friends will be watching to see whether he will favor a tougher stand against the Arab boycott. That could also be a test for the new Foreign Secretary, Howe. Generally, the new Parliament is potentially moresympathetic toward Israel, largely because of the devastating defeat suffered by the Labor Party which at its last annual conference supported the Palestine Liberation Organization’s call for a “secular democratic state of Palestine.”

At the some time, Greville Janner, president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, is the only Labor member of Parliament in the city of Leicester to retain his seat.

On the eve of the elections, Thatcher affirmed her “strong, personal support and admiration for the State of Israel.” But she also defended her government’s contacts with the PLO, ruled out moving the British Embassy to Jerusalem and denied that Jews had “an unconditional right” to settle on the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

She made those remarks in response to a questionnaire submitted by the National