How
Can Blair Possibly
Be Given This Job?
By Robert Fisk
23 June, 2007
The
Independent
I
suppose that astonishment is not the word for it. Stupefaction comes
to mind. I simply could not believe my ears in Beirut when a phone call
told me that Lord Blair of Kut al-Amara was going to create "Palestine".
I checked the date - no, it was not 1 April - but I remain overwhelmed
that this vain, deceitful man, this proven liar, a trumped-up lawyer
who has the blood of thousands of Arab men, women and children on his
hands is really contemplating being "our" Middle East envoy.
Can this really be true?
I had always assumed that Balfour, Sykes and Picot were the epitome
of Middle Eastern hubris. But Blair? That this ex-prime minister, this
man who took his country into the sands of Iraq, should actually believe
that he has a role in the region - he whose own preposterous envoy,
Lord Levy, made so many secret trips there to absolutely no avail -
is now going to sully his hands (and, I fear, our lives) in the world's
last colonial war is simply overwhelming.
Of course, he'll be in touch
with Mahmoud Abbas, will try to marginalise Hamas, will talk endlessly
about "moderates"; and we'll have to listen to him pontificating
about morality, how he's absolutely and completely confident that he's
doing the right thing (and this, remember, is the same man who postponed
a ceasefire in Lebanon last year in order to share George Bush's ridiculous
hope of an Israeli victory over Hizbollah) in bringing peace to the
Middle East...
Not once - ever - has he
apologised. Not once has he said he was sorry for what he did in our
name. Yet Lord Blair actually believes - in what must be a record act
of self-indulgence for a man who cooked up the fake evidence of Iraq's
"weapons of mass destruction" - that he can do good in the
Middle East.
For here is a man who is
totally discredited in the region - a politician who has signally failed
in everything he ever tried to do in the Middle East - now believing
that he is the right man to lead the Quartet to patch up "Palestine".
In the hunt for quislings
to do our bidding - ie accept even less of Mandate Palestine than Arafat
would stomach - I suppose Blair has his uses. His unique blend of ruthlessness
and dishonesty will no doubt go down quite well with our local Arab
dictators.
And I have a suspicion -
always assuming this extraordinary story is not untrue - that Blair
will be able to tour around Damascus, even Tehran, in his hunt for "peace",
thus paving the way for an American exit strategy in Iraq. But "Palestine"?
The Palestinians held elections
- real, copper-bottomed ones, the democratic variety - and Hamas won.
But Blair will presumably not be able to talk to Hamas. He'll need to
talk only to Abbas's flunkies, to negotiate with an administration described
so accurately this week by my old colleague Rami Khoury as a "government
of the imagination".
The Americans are talking
- and here I am quoting the State Department spokesman, Sean McCormack
- about an envoy who can work "with the Palestinians in the Palestinian
system" to develop institutions for a "well-governed state".
Oh yes, I can see how that would appeal to Lord Blair. He likes well-governed
states, lots of "terror laws", plenty of security - though
I'm still a bit puzzled about what the "Palestinian system"
is meant to be.
It was James Wolfensohn who
was originally "our" Middle East envoy, a former World Bank
president who left in frustration because he could neither reconstruct
Gaza nor work with a "peace process" that was being eroded
with every new Jewish settlement and every Qassam rocket fired into
Israel. Does Blair think he can do better? What honeyed words will we
hear?
I bet he doesn't mention
the Israeli wall which is taking so much extra land from the Palestinians.
It will be a "security barrier" or a "fence" (like
the famous Berlin "fence" which was actually called a "security
barrier" by those generous East German Vopo cops of the time).
There will be appeals for
restraint "on all sides", endless calls for "moderation",
none at all for justice (which is all the people of the Middle East
have been pleading for over the past 100 years).
And Israel likes Lord Blair.
Indeed, Blair's slippery use of language is likely to appeal to Ehud
Olmert, whose government continues to take Arab land for Jews and Jews
only as he waits to discover a Palestinian with whom he can "negotiate",
Mahmoud Abbas now having the prestige of a rabbit after his forces were
crushed in Gaza.
Which of "Palestine"'s
two prime ministers will Blair talk to? Why, the one with a collar and
tie, of course, who works for Mr Abbas, who will demand more "security",
tougher laws, less democracy.
I have never been able to
figure out why the Middle East draws the Balfours and the Sykeses and
the Blairs into its maw. Once, our favourite trouble-shooter was James
Baker - who worked for George W's father until the Israelis got tired
of him - and before that we had a whole list of UN Secretary Generals
who visited the region, frowned and warned of serious consequences if
peace did not soon come.
I recall another man with
Blair's pomposity, a certain Kurt Waldheim, who - no longer the UN's
boss - actually believed he could be an "envoy" for peace
in the Middle East, despite his little wartime career as an intelligence
officer for the Wehrmacht's Army Group "E".
His visits - especially to
the late King Hussein - came to nothing, of course. But Waldheim's ability
to draw a curtain over his wartime past does have one thing in common
with Blair. For Waldheim steadfastly, pointedly, repeatedly, refused
to acknowledge - ever - that he had ever done anything wrong. Now who
does that remind you of?
© 2007 Independent News and Media Limited
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