Blair's Other Legacy

As Iraq , Iraq , Iraq is quite properly, by the consensus of Blair’s political obituarists, his abject legacy, it has been overlooked that he also deserved outright condemnation for the debacle in Lebanon . His support for Israel ’s war on Hezbollah last summer also deserves to be engraved on his political headstone. When Israel bombed the Lebanese villages, killing over 1,000 Lebanese citizens, Blair repeatedly uttered the ridiculous phrase ‘we will not indulge in the politics of condemnation’. This is, verbatim, the mantra that Gerry Adams used for 20 years when confronted in interviews about IRA bombings. We as a country were reduced to trotting this out in the face of the outrages in Lebanon when Jacques Chirac was describing Israel ’s actions as ‘completely disproportionate’, a lenient enough condemnation in itself. To this day, Blair’s bizarre stance has radicalized young Muslims in this country as well as alienated our allies and partners in Europe and beyond. It is forgotten now but Ehud Ohlmert had visited Blair at Downing Street in June of last year. Ohlmert appears to have convinced Blair that Israel could roll over Hezbollah (‘Slam Dunk’ ring a bell?) and he adopted a stance of supporting Israel even in the face of the indefensible.
Israel's bombardment brought Hezbollah huge local support whilst weakening the elected Government of Lebanon. It also placed Blair foursquare with the US priorities in the Middle East of supporting Israel right or wrong and pursuing oil.
This makes the publication on 30th April of the report of the Winograd Commission untimely for Blair and his international ‘cronies’. The report, following on a six month investigation, is damning in the extreme. The link below will illustrate why Ohlmert’s reputation is totally destroyed and is another nail in the coffin of Blair’s ‘legacy’. This episode deserves to be remembered. If Blair’s spinners, toadies and a supine press have their way, I doubt if it will be.

http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/Government/Communiques/2007/Winograd+Inquiry+Commission+submits+Interim+Report+30-Apr-2007.htm