Tony Blair

I am attaching a reflection on Tony Blair which I had written in 2007, to remind my readers why it is not that easy to delete Tony Blair. In his capacity as Prime Minister of the UK (1997-2007) Tony Blair played a crucial role in the Gulf war, a war waged by the US and the UK on Iraq in 2003. A war based on false assumptions that Iraq had nuclear weapons. A war that could have been avoided, sparing so many lives and the devastation of the whole region, which seems to be suffering from its effects up to this day. But then in his capacity as a special envoy to the quartet (2007-2015) to help in implementing the peace process between the Palestinians and Israel, he was a complete failure, and the peace process seemed to be simply a process leading us to no where.

 Yet once again Tony Blair’s name appeared recently in playing a major role in initiating the first steps to the normalization between the Emirates and Israel, in an article written by Ariel Kahana in the Israeli paper “Isarel Hayom.” Is Tony Blair still itching to connect his name with peace in the region? I am sorry Mr. Blair, you lost that opportunity twice. First in your capacity as Prime Minister, when the UK could have atoned for the Balfour Declaration and recognized the State of Palestine. And second as a special envoy to the Quartet to enforce the peace process, when you could have sanctioned Israel for not implementing the United Nations resolutions.

Both Israel and the US are making a big hoopla out of the normalization with the Emirates and Bahrain, and there are already many cartoons on the social media showing a long queue of other Arab countries following suit. Security has always been a priority for Israel. So under the guise of “security”, Israel has violated all human rights according to international law, and refused to abide by United Nations resolutions, or the Oslo accords which were initiated by the PLO, and signed by Israel under the patronage of the USA. That is why any country that has never been at war with Israel will ever be able to guarantee peace or security for Israel as long as it continues to occupy the Palestinian land and deprive the Palestinians of their inalienable rights.

Tony Blair
By Samia Khoury
September 28, 2007

Today I saw my friend who has been urging me to print the collection of my reflections, so I decided not to delay this task any longer, As I started looking through my documents I found a file that read "British Prime Minister Tony Blair". To my surprise when I checked the file it was empty. I must have planned to write something and for one reason or another I did not, or my mood must have changed and the inspiration slipped away. So I decided to delete the file since there was nothing in it. But to my surprise again, I got a flashing sign saying "cannot delete Tony Blair."

How ironic I thought; indeed one cannot delete Tony Blair. When we thought there was a change in the British government he popped up again as the special envoy of the Quartet. Was Tony Blair supposed to resuscitate the body that has not given a sign of breath since its creation? Or was he supposed to give hope to the Palestinians in a hopeless situation? Tony Blair, the Prime Minister was in a much stronger position to enforce a settlement and bring about justice to the people who were victims of the British Mandate policy. It was a golden opportunity for Tony Blair to atone for the policies of his predecessors. Unfortunately he wasted his brilliant career on a futile war that brought so much misery to the region as well as great losses amongst his troops. So I am not deleting Tony Blair because I filled up the file with this reflection.

As an optimist by nature, I want to hope against all odds that next time Blair is in our country his smile will be a genuine one, and a true reflection of moving ahead towards justice, liberation and healing.