Every now and then Tony Blair
pops up out of nowhere and reminds us all he’s still out there on his private
jet. It’s almost routine now. This time Blair tells us the West needs to focus
on radical Islam. No surprise there. It’s an old message now. We’ve heard it
all before. He ranked it alongside the environment in importance. Of course, it
should go without saying that the politicians like Blair have never been as
interested in combating climate change as they have been in waging wars in West
Asia. For years all we’ve heard about has been radical Islamism and the threat
it poses to liberal democracies. Yet in Blair’s mind it’s as if the West
suddenly stopped focusing on radical Islam.
All of this is to be expected
from Tony Blair given his record. What stands out is one of the suggestions
Blair makes to this end. The former Prime Minister asks that the West put aside
their differences with Russia over Ukraine. Of course, by Russia we know that
the former statesman means Putin, as all statesmen see governments and
countries as one in the same, just as when he refers to ‘the West’ he doesn’t
mean the populations of America, Britain, and Europe. Usually ‘the West’ would
only refer to North America and North-Western Europe, but since he has defined
‘the West’ in relation to Russia we can include Eastern Europe in this category
as well. Like everything about Blair’s world we can only see it in its proper
context.
In the ‘War on Terror’ the
Russian Federation was a notable member of the coalition forged by the US with
countries around the world. Back in 2001 Putin was fighting to put down an
insurgency in Chechnya having flattened most of the country since the conflict
first started. It was vital to the consolidation of his power in Moscow that
the regions remain as Russian provinces. To some it was clear what this meant
at the time. As Chomsky said in 2001 “We should look very carefully at this
anti-terrorism coalition and who is joining it and why. Russia is happily
joining the international coalition because it is delighted to have U.S.
support for the horrendous atrocities it is carrying out in its war against
Chechnya. It describes that as an anti-terrorist war. In fact it is a murderous
terrorist war itself.”[1]
Certainly, Blair and Putin understood this then just as they understand it
today.
The tussle over Ukraine is a
non-issue for Blair in his private jet. He has more pressing issues to concern
himself with, such as advising the Nazarbayev regime in Kazakhstan, the
al-Sabah family of Kuwait, and King Abdullah II of Jordan. For Blair the
personal is political and we should never take him as a neutral agent. He
stands as the Middle East Peace Envoy for the Quartet formed by the backing of
the United Nations, the United States, the European Union, and the Russian
Federation. Blair works closely alongside John Kerry and Sergei Lavrov. The
Quartet was set up in 2002 in the still warm aftermath of the Second Intifada
and the Israel’s war with Lebanon. The point of the Quartet has been to back
ceasefire arrangements and try to bring about a peace settlement. But it’s long
been clear what the arrangement is really about.
In his capacity as peace envoy
Blair spends a week out of every month in Jerusalem and maintains warm
relations with the Netanyahu government. He was conspicuously absent during
Operation Cast Lead and chose to extend his holiday rather than comment on the
unfolding bloodbath. Just as Putin has worked to build strong relations between
Russia and Israel and continues to hold together the relationship in spite of
the Ukrainian crisis. If there were any doubts that the Israeli government
would fall in line with its American patrons those doubts were swiftly put to
rest last month. On March 27th Netanyahu abstained from the vote at
the UN General Assembly on a resolution on Crimea. No doubt, Netanyahu has the
old refusenik voters to consider as his coalition with Avigdor Lieberman bids to
hoover up as many of them as possible.
It doesn’t stop there. Israel
looks forward to a free-trade deal with Russia. The Israeli government held a
moratorium on arms sales to Georgia and turns a blind eye to Putin’s rampaging
in the Caucasus; and in return Medvedev cancelled a delivery of missiles to
Iran in 2009.[2] In
its own aggressive expansionist designs Israel cannot help but find common
cause with states which have traditionally sought to expand their boundaries.
Of course, this is a relationship not uncomplicated given Russia’s support in
weapons of Assad and, by extension, the Hezbollah. The main objective for the
Israelis is to prolong negotiations in order to give them more time to expand
even further. The Russians have no objection provided they can rely on Israeli
and Western support for its operations to thwart the Chechen bid for
independence.
Like everything about Middle East
policy in the West it all comes down to Israel. So when Ariel Sharon finally
died it wasn’t too surprising to see Tony Blair at the funeral service. There
the peace envoy spewed forth about how the Bulldozer brought ‘iron
determination’ to diplomacy as he had to the camps of Sabra and Shatila.[3]
The Israeli government were more than displeased by the last minute change in
policy towards Mubarak in the US. Netanyahu wanted total support even after it
had become impossible to prevent Mubarak from being removed by his own goons.
The reasoning was obvious. Israel does not need a rejuvenated Arab powerhouse
on its border with the reins of government in the hands of its populace. Blair
and Putin couldn’t agree more. This is what realists mean when they talk about
‘regional stability’.
Not many commentators seem to
recall, or perhaps they don’t want to, Blair’s remark that Hosni Mubarak is “a
force for good”.[4] As
the military were displaced from power and democratic elections were held in
Egypt the crusader was clear. He told the readers of the Evening Standard “democracy
is not just a way of voting but a way of thinking”.[5]
He emphasised the need for proper institutions and pluralism and individual
freedoms and a modern economy. When the Muslim Brotherhood were dumped by
military putsch last summer Blair reiterated these same words as a
justification for the coup. The Arab masses weren’t ready for the democracy
and, as always, need a strong leader, in his mind, the kind of man General
al-Sisi looks for in his mirror every morning.
If the Quartet is a roadshow for
the negotiations then we should know how to frame the importance of Russian
support for it. All the states involved in the ‘peace process’ declare solemn
support for the two-state settlement, the matters of when, where and how remain
conveniently mysterious. As part of the Quartet, only the UN has been a serious
forum for international opposition to Israeli aggression and support for a
two-state settlement. The UN routinely votes through resolutions to the
Israel-Palestine conflict and it votes unanimously in favour of a two-state
settlement. The US uses it privilege on the UN Security Council to veto all
resolutions and has done consistently for over thirty years now. Meanwhile the
EU has been striking in its timidity to the US until recently when the
Europeans passed a modicum of sanctions against Israeli settlements. It’s clear
that the Russian Federation stands with the US to counterbalance any opposition
which might creep out of the UN and the EU.
This article was originally written for Souciant on May 2nd 2014.
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