Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, 72, will play a key role in the transitional body that will govern the post-war Gaza Strip, as per U.S. President Donald Trump’s 20-point “Peace Plan”. Mr. Trump’s plan draws heavily from a proposal that Mr. Blair himself had developed through his think tank, the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change.
In Mr. Blair’s version of the plan, an international body, the Gaza International Transitional Authority (GITA), would govern the Gaza Strip for a certain number of years. In Mr. Trump’s proposal, Article 9 states that Gaza would be “governed under the temporary transitional governance of a technocratic, apolitical Palestinian committee”. This Palestinian committee, however, will report to “a new international transitional body, the “Board of Peace”, which will be headed and chaired by U.S. President Donald J. Trump, with other members and heads of State to be announced, including former Prime Minister Tony Blair.”
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The governance structure comprising a transitional Palestinian committee and the Board of Peace is a rehash of Mr. Blair’s GITA model. Both versions envisage an administrative hierarchy with a wealthy white man (Mr. Blair/Mr. Trump) from the West helming an apex body that would “exercise supreme strategic and political authority”. Palestinian representation comes at the bottom of the managerial ladder. Its remit is restricted to the nitty-gritty of civic governance such as policing, municipal services, and vaccination programmes.
Mr. Trump’s plan also makes it clear that the “framework and funding” for the redevelopment of Gaza will be managed by the Board of Peace. As per leaked excerpts of Mr. Blair’s proposal, this Board would consist of seven to 10 members, with sizeable representation to billionaire investors, alongside Arab/Muslim faces to bestow a semblance of legitimacy.
A major criticism levelled against Mr. Trump’s Gaza plan is that Palestinians were not consulted, which is both true and unsurprising, given its provenance in Mr. Blair’s think tank. However, what has sparked outrage is the return of Mr. Blair as a “Governor” figure. British politician George Galloway posted on social media, “Once it was clear that Satan was fully occupied elsewhere, Tony Blair was the obvious choice to govern Gaza for Trump and Netanyahu.” British and American broadcaster Mehdi Hasan wrote, “Putting Tony Blair in charge of any kind of peace effort in the Middle East [West Asia] is like making the arsonist the head fire-fighter; the burglar the chief detective.” What makes Mr. Blair such a polarising figure, and why is he the chosen one to run Gaza?
Labour leader
Mr. Blair became leader of the Labour Party in 1994 following the untimely death of his predecessor, John Smith. Interestingly, he did so despite the fact that party colleague and rival Gordon Brown was seen as Smith’s natural successor. A gifted politician, Mr. Blair broke with traditional Labour politics — democratic socialism riding on support from trade unions — by following a “third way” that won over the middle classes. Named “New Labour” by analysts, he adopted a centrist, pro-market stance on the economic front, and in a sharp departure from the non-interventionism of “old Labour”, embraced an ‘interventionist’ foreign policy. The shift worked brilliantly. Mr. Blair led Labour to victory in three consecutive parliamentary elections. He became the longest-serving Labour Prime Minister in British history, holding office from 1997 to 2007. Worsening relations with Mr. Brown, however, forced him to resign in June 2007.
As Prime Minister, Mr. Blair’s biggest achievement was brokering the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, which ended decades of brutal sectarian conflict in Northern Ireland. It was a triumph that would become his calling card — and a rather lucrative one — as an expert in conflict resolution. He also put into action the “Blair Doctrine” of “humanitarian interventionism” by sending British troops to Kosovo in 1999 and to Sierra Leone, a former British colony, in 2000. He believed that “the international community” had a right to intervene in the internal affairs of sovereign nations in order to stop human rights abuses.
Ironically, his penchant for interventionism, which won him plaudits in the context of Kosovo and Sierra Leone, would, with his cheerleading of the 2003 Iraq war, lead to his downfall and eventual status as a political pariah. The Chilcot Inquiry into Britain’s involvement in the Iraq war delivered a searing indictment of Mr. Blair’s role as Prime Minister, charging him with deceiving the British people and dragging Britain into an unnecessary, illegal war on false pretexts (there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq). It also noted that Mr. Blair sent British troops to a country that posed no threats to British interests, in a move that cost the lives of 179 British citizens, besides thousands of Iraqi lives, displacing millions of Iraqis, and creating long-term instability in the region. It led many, including members of his own party, to brand him a “war criminal”.
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Immediately after resigning as PM, Mr. Blair was made the “Middle East Envoy” of the Quartet — the U.S., the United Nations, the European Union, and Russia. On paper, his mandate was to help build Palestinian institutions and liaise with all the stakeholders for economic development. But Mr. Blair, a trusted friend of Israel, made no visible effort to either halt the expansion of Israeli settlements or push for a two-state settlement. He failed to win the trust or respect of the Palestinians. Though he flopped as a peacemaker, his personal wealth grew rapidly, through paid consultancies with governments in the region, speaking engagements, and operating as an intermediary for billionaire businessmen.
Larry Ellison, the Zionist billionaire who is in talks to buy TikTok, is a donor to the Tony Blair Institute. Mr. Blair also became an adviser to JP Morgan Chase, a bank that, as reported by journalist Jonathan Cook, benefited massively from at least one major deal brokered by Mr. Blair in his capacity as West Asia envoy. According to Mr. Cook, Mr. Blair got Israel to open up West Bank’s airwaves for a Palestinian cellphone company. But the price negotiated by Mr. Blair is quite revealing: the Palestinians had to stop raising the issue of Israeli war crimes at the UN.
This is the “experience of the region” that Mr. Blair brings to his latest job. It is evident that this experience is viewed favourably by his most important backers, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (wanted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes), and Mr. Trump, who continues to aid and abet the genocide in Gaza. More than a century after one British politician inaugurated a settler colonial project in Palestine with the Balfour Declaration, Palestinians in Gaza remain mute witnesses as their fate, and their future, is delivered into the hands of another, their new viceroy.
Published – October 05, 2025 01:30 am IST
