An independent media outlet just sent an Israeli arms firm fleeing from Britain, because that's the power of real journalism. Right, so you can always tell when a political access operation has gone wrong, because everyone involved suddenly pretends it was never happening, and that’s exactly what we’ve just seen with Rafael’s little UK adventure. A state-owned Israeli weapons manufacturer turns up calling itself a British company, slides £1,499 into a parliamentary group that’s not allowed to take foreign-government money, gets cosy access to MPs under the banner of “defence technology”, and nobody inside Westminster notices a thing until an independent newsroom actually checks the filings. And the moment the disguise drops, the whole thing folds in on itself. The APPG dissolves. The Standards Commissioner steps in. Rafael files to shut down its  ...