Tony Blair and the Denial of Palestine
The former British prime minister's close ties to Benjamin Netanyahu make him a central player in Donald Trump's plan for Gaza, writes historian Jean-Pierre Filiu in his column
The Palestinian people have learned, throughout their painful history, that their fate can be discussed far, far away from Palestine, and without even a hint of consultation. And it was to the White House on August 27 that US President Donald Trump invited his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and his golf and business partner, Steve Witkoff, to discuss Gaza. The former was his special envoy for the Middle East during his previous term, and the latter is his current emissary for the region.
Also invited was Tony Blair, British Prime Minister from 1997 to 2007, whose consulting firm, the Tony Blair Institute, has been working for months with Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff on the political packaging of the project to transform Gaza into the "Riviera of the Middle East . " And when Donald Trump revealed his plan for Gaza on September 29, he affirmed that Tony Blair would sit alongside him on a "peace committee" charged with managing the Palestinian enclave. Tony Blair's commitment to such an American design is a continuation of decades of hostility towards Palestinian nationalism.
By mobilizing the United Kingdom alongside the United States in 2003, Prime Minister Blair not only made a decisive contribution to the disastrous invasion of Iraq. He also subscribed to the equally devastating vision of the American neoconservatives who had convinced George W. Bush that "the road to Jerusalem will pass through Baghdad." These ideologues of the "global war on terror" asserted that the overthrow of the Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein would lead to a virtuous cycle of democratization first in Iraq and then in the rest of the Arab world, hence an irresistible dynamic of peace with Israel, according to the axiom that "two democracies do not go to war."
The European alibi of American neoconservatives.
Rather than relaunching the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, it was therefore better to work towards this future partnership between Israel and the Arab states, a reasoning that would be found again, two decades later, in the "Abraham Accords", which were also supposed to provide a settlement to the Palestinian question.
The disastrous results of such a caricatured vision, however, forced President Bush to form a Quartet for the Middle East. The United States retained the dominant position in this Quartet, which included Russia, the European Union, and the United Nations. But it thus maintained the illusion of international consultation on what remained an exercise tightly controlled by Washington.
The Quartet's special envoy was the American-Australian James Wolfensohn, until then president of the World Bank. In 2005, at the G8 summit, chaired by Tony Blair, he proposed an ambitious plan to support the Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, including the reopening of the airport and the development of the port, for a total of 3 billion dollars. But the success of such a plan depended on freedom of movement between Gaza and the West Bank, with a view to a Palestinian state, while Israel was determined to maintain the division between the two territories. James Wolfensohn, disheartened by his failure, resigned, while Hamas gradually established itself behind closed doors in Gaza, from which it expelled the Palestinian Authority in 2007, now confined to the West Bank.
Economic development rather than national rights.
It was in this context that George W. Bush appointed Tony Blair as the Quartet's special envoy, a prestigious consolation prize after ten years at the head of the British government. Tony Blair put his undeniable communication skills to the service of an economic development program for the West Bank alone, whose relative prosperity was supposed to convince the population of Gaza to get rid of Hamas.
However, he did not get involved in the promising negotiations between Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in 2008. Benjamin Netanyahu took over the Israeli government in 2009 and was pleased that Tony Blair was content to ease the occupation of the West Bank (by reducing, but not removing, military roadblocks), while establishing a stock exchange in Nablus and encouraging tourism in Bethlehem.
Tony Blair, during his eight years as special envoy, from 2007 to 2015, never questioned the very principle of the colonization of the West Bank or the blockade imposed on Gaza. It is this deep compatibility with Benjamin Netanyahu that makes him the ideal candidate to assist Donald Trump in the trusteeship of a Gaza Strip "liberated" from Hamas. The reflections of the Tony Blair Institute are also reflected in Donald Trump's invocation, on September 29, of "a new Gaza, entirely dedicated to building a prosperous economy and peaceful coexistence with its neighbors."
The American president is pushing back to a horizon as distant as it is indefinite. "the opening of a credible path towards self-determination and the creation of a Palestinian state." But this matters little to Tony Blair, who is willing to provide European support for an American plan already endorsed by Benjamin Netanyahu, thus replaying in a minor key his 2003 performance. While the United Kingdom has just recognized Palestine, its former prime minister is still in denial.
Originally in French, copied from an email forward, and very factual and lucid analysis of the negotiations between the Palestinians and Israel, and a franc discussion of the possibility later of appointing a very controversial figure,(Tony Blair) with a very dubious and questionable past and relations covering the area.
As always, my many thanks to all.
As always, my many thanks to all.
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