British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s visit last week to the Kingdom, as well as to Syria, Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian Authority was, on the face of it, a progress worthy of a very important world statesman. He leapt from aircraft to limousines to meetings and back again. But just what was his message and just what did he really understand of the problems of the Middle East into which he had plunged with such eagerness?
Many pundits took the view that Blair undertook his Middle East tour on behalf of US President George W. Bush. Indeed, next Wednesday Blair will be jetting over to Washington from London for long talks with the president. For Bush, who came to the White House with startlingly little experience and very limited knowledge of the world outside the United States, the more urbane Blair must represent a cosmopolitan person to have as his principal ally in his war against terrorism, which just now looks simply like a war against Afghanistan.
It can be certain that the two leaders will find that Palestine is at the top of their agenda next week. Blair’s ears will probably still be ringing from the clear and uncompromising messages he received throughout his whirlwind Middle East trip. Bush, meanwhile, may very well still be smarting from the obdurate and unmannerly way in which Israel’s Premier Sharon has refused to do Washington’s bidding and withdraw his military from Palestinian land.
But here is the rub. Until Sept. 11, neither leader would have given very much of their time to seeking a just solution to the half-century of horror imposed on the Palestinian people by the Israelis. But after the World Trade Center and Pentagon outrages, they needed support in the Arab and wider Muslim worlds for their international front against terrorism, particularly since its first target was Osama Bin Laden and his Afghani protectors. Therefore, Palestine has been forced into their plans.
Suddenly they are looking for a rapid solution to a complex problem to which both Britain and America have contributed. The British found the original Palestinian question so difficult, (thanks to their own duplicity in the Balfour Declaration some 43 years earlier), that in 1947 they abandoned their United Nations’ Palestine mandate and pulled out their military, leaving the way clear for the declaration of an Israeli state and the start of over 50 years of tragedy.
Will Washington be able to force Israel to accept a lasting and just peace for the Palestinians, complete with international observers and copper-bottomed guarantees? Or will Ariel Sharon successfully unleash America’s powerful Zionist lobby, its fifth column within the US, to attack and suborn White House and American policy?
It can be fairly certain, that whatever the quality of his advice from the State Department, George W. Bush still understands little of the issues that are at stake here. Until it became clear that he would have to tackle Palestine if he wished to maintain the support of the Arab and wider Muslim world, he probably cared even less. But is Blair really any better informed than Bush?
