Lebanon In Tony Blair’s Memoir

Chris Philips of The Guardian Lambasts Tony Blair’s “mistake” in not condemning Israel and opposing a ceasefire during the bombing of Lebanon in 2006:

Blair declares a deep ideological motivation for opposing a ceasefire. He states: “If I had condemned Israel, it would have been more than dishonest; it would have undermined the world view I had come to hold passionately.”

It is this world view that is most alarming about Blair’s account. Through this lens, Blair believed: “Lebanon was embroiled in something far bigger and more portentous than a temporary fight with Israel.” Instead, he sees it as a “wider struggle between the strain of religious extremism in Islam and the rest of us”. He was thus willing to delay a ceasefire in order to win victory in this wider struggle, of which he saw Hezbollah as a key combatant, and Israel as one of “us”.

From Blair’s perspective this religious struggle defines the Middle East. He states: “To me, you can’t understand Hezbollah unless you understand the role of Iran; or understdand Lebanon unless you understand Syria … or understand either country in its present state unless you understand the history not just of the region but of the religion, how it saw itself, how it had developed its own narrative, how it saw its own predicament.”

Remember, this was very personal to Mr. Blair and not about the Labour’s party policy. David Miliband, his right hand at the time and now a hopeful to lead the party revealed recently that he regretted not being able to dissuade Mr. Blair from his Lebanon stance.