Tony Blair, the founder and self-designated CEO of the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, has now experienced the receiving end of global change. Designated two months ago by Donald Trump to join him on the “Board of Peace” to oversee a permanent peace for Gaza, Sir Anthony Blair was met with deep opposition from Arab and Muslim countries, in particular for his role as British Prime Minister in the fashioning of the fraudulent war on Iraq in 2003.
Blair was found guilty of crimes against peace in a unanimous decision of the 2011 Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Commission, established by Malaysia’s former Prime Minister Mahathir bin Mohamad. Archbishop Desmond Tutu called for Blair to be brought before the International Criminal Court in The Hague. Blair escaped that attempt, and the 2017 attempt by former Iraqi General Abdulwaheed al-Rabbat to prosecute Blair for “the crime of aggression” before London’s High Court, in which the latter ruled that the crime of aggression was recognized by international law, but not U.K. law.
Not long after naming Blair, Trump acknowledged publicly the opposition to Blair’s appointment, saying: “I’ve always liked Tony, but I want to find out that he’s an acceptable choice to everybody.” Now, according to various media accounts, Trump has listened to the opposition and has dumped Blair.
Blair’s office has declined to comment on the development, and London’s Financial Times has tried to come to Blair’s defense. While FT cites “people familiar with the matter” to state that “Blair has been dropped from consideration for Donald Trump’s ‘board of peace’ in Gaza,” they spoke with an unnamed “ally” of Blair who rejected suggestions that the problem with Blair was due to opposition from some countries in the region. The ally offered a technical fig leaf, claiming that the Board of Peace “will be made up of serving world leaders,” and Blair, as a former prime minister (not presently serving), therefore did not qualify for the board. However, while it had been mentioned that the board would include heads of government, it was never stated that it was to be restricted only to such.
The ally put out that Blair is expected to sit on an executive committee, underneath the actual board and alongside Jared Kushner and Trump adviser Steve Witkoff and senior officials from Arab and Western countries. The suggestion is that the board’s subservient committee is what was intended for Blair all along, and that news reports of opposition from Arab and Muslim nations is confused about the situation. However, Blair had campaigned to be a lead person on the board, not some committee, and Trump, when he announced the plan in early October, had only specified one other candidate for board membership—Blair. And, indeed, that announcement of Blair indeed raised major opposition.
Neither Blair nor Financial Times may like it, but global change is happening without their guidance and, apparently, over their dead political bodies.
