LONDON, 31 July 2006 — Tony Blair is facing a Cabinet rebellion over his uncritical support to President George Bush as his former foreign secretary last night warned that Israel’s actions risked destabilizing all of Lebanon.
After meeting his Muslim constituents in Blackburn, Jack Straw, now a government leader in the Commons, said, in a statement, that he grieved for the innocent Israelis killed but he mourned 10 times more “innocent Lebanese men, women and children killed by Israeli fire”.
Newspaper reports here suggest that even before Blair left for last Friday’s meeting with Bush, several ministers had tried to convince him to break ties with the Americans. They had asked him to criticize Israel over the scale of death and destruction.
Even before Jack Straw’s statement it was becoming clear that Blair’s failure to convince George Bush to a press Israel for a cease-fire in the Middle East was costing him his popularity with the British public.
According to a staunch supporter of Tony Blair and member of the Commons foreign affairs committee, Greg Pope, there is a widespread dismay among Cabinet ministers that the government had not called for an immediate cease-fire.
The Guardian has quoted him saying, “Tony has misjudged (this issue), and is leaving us isolated among European countries and at home,”
A survey by the Guardian/ICM, last week, showed that 63% of the British public reject Tony Blair’s allying of Britain too closely to the US.
According to the survey, carried in the wake of accidental broadcast of Toney Blair’s conversation with President Bush at the G8 summit — which showed the buddy ness of the two leaders — there was opposition to his foreign policy among supporters of all the main parties.
Even a majority of the supporters of his own Labour Party thinks that Tony Blair has misjudged the relationship with 54% saying that Britain is too close to the US while 68% of Conservatives and 83% of Liberal Democrats are even more critical.
Meanwhile, expressing their dissatisfaction with Tony Blair’s foreign policy, 13 British leading charities, rights groups and trade Unions, including Muslim Council of Britain, Oxfam, Christian Aid, Islamic Relief and Save the Children, in a joint letter have said, “...we have not yet heard a compelling argument as to why you will not call for an immediate ceasefire to save lives now — and create space for negotiations over a final settlement. The present policy looks in danger of placing Britain in the uncomfortable position of only calling for a ceasefire once one side in the conflict has achieved its military objectives.”
According to a Muslim MP of Tony Blair’s ruling Labour Party, Sadiq Khan, who said, “As I speak to my constituents in Tooting and people elsewhere in London, of all faiths, races and backgrounds, I hear views that are almost identical: ‘This is worse than Iraq’. It is not easy for Muslims to watch, every night, TV pictures of the destruction that Israel has wreaked in Lebanon. We find it difficult to understand why our government has steadfastly supported the US in giving a green light to Israel, allowing the killing to continue.”
As if the news that British airports are being used, apparently, without the government’s permission, as stop-off for aircraft carrying missiles from America to Israel, was not enough to cause frustration among the public, reports have appeared in the press that British arms companies are supplying key parts for Israel’s Apache combat helicopters, F-15 and F-16 fighter jets deployed in southern Lebanon, Gaza and the West Bank.
The British government as a matter policy has banned the sale of weapons likely to be used “aggressively against another country” or fuel regional tensions.
As public frustration against Blair’s foreign policy grows and as he sees his time in office running out, last week court of appeal held that the families of the four soldiers killed in Iraq, are entitled to seek judicial review of government’s refusal to hold an inquiry into why Britain had invaded Iraq.
The case will be heard in November and may not go much further; this will be an additional embarrassment for Tony Blair.
Blair Seeks Link With California Stem Cell Research
In San Francisco, Blair is seeking to promote links between stem cell researchers in Britain and California, two leaders in the field.
In contrast to the United States, where a stem cell research bill provoked President Bush’s first veto, Britain has strongly encouraged such research.
It set up the world’s first stem cell bank in 2004 to store and supply the cells for research that could lead to new treatments for illnesses from Alzheimer’s disease to diabetes.
Britain sees California as a strategic partner in the biotechnology industry, officials accompanying Blair say.
“They are interested in working with us in developing the stem cell industry and we’re working toward a joint UK-California conference to be held in the UK in November,” Blair’s spokesman said.
Blair will meet today executives from biotechnology firms such as Genentech, Gilead Sciences and Cell Genesys.
California has given a strong boost to stem cell research. In 2004, state voters backed the creation of the California Institute for Regenerative Research, passing a measure giving it the power to raise up to $3 billion in debt to finance stem-cell research.
