The War Criminal Blair As Peace Envoy? 
Source: CounterPunch
Weekend Edition
June 23 / 24, 2007

How Could Blair Possibly Get This Job?

The Bumbling Envoy

By ROBERT FISK

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?
Robert Fisk is a reporter for The Independent and author of Pity the 
Nation. He is also a contributor to CounterPunch's collection, The 
Politics of Anti-Semitism. Fisk's new book is The Conquest of the 
Middle East.

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