UK Colonialism in the Region with the Tony Blair Plan
TEHRAN (Defapress) - In a situation where more than 2 years have passed since the war in Gaza, we see that this strip no longer resembles a city, and almost all of its facilities and buildings, as well as its urban infrastructure, have been completely destroyed under the heavy, inhumane, and brutal bombing and shelling of the Zionist regime.
Now, in this situation, we are witnessing that the Western media has reported Washington's support for designing and formulating a plan under which former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair will take over the leadership of a transitional organization in Gaza. This measure, which is ostensibly aimed at "managing the political transition and rebuilding Gaza," has been met with widespread reactions and opposition in the region and even around the world.
However, US President Donald Trump's plan to govern the Gaza Strip, under which Tony Blair will be the interim ruler of Gaza for five years, was proposed because the former UK Prime Minister served as special envoy for the Middle East from 2007 to 2015. However, this service was accompanied by so much cruelty and crimes against the Palestinian people that he is now hated by many Palestinians.
Israeli media have also reported in this regard that the White House supports a plan under which Tony Blair, initially without direct involvement from the Palestinian Authority, will head an interim government in the Gaza Strip. According to this proposal, Blair will head an institution called the “Gaza International Transitional Authority” (GITA), which will be the “supreme political and legal authority” of Gaza for five years.
If we want to find the roots and model on which this plan was planned and designed, we should read the report of the two Zionist newspapers Haaretz and The Times of Israel, which state that Trump’s plan for the administration of the Gaza Strip by “Tony Blair” is based on the model of the governments that supervised the early stages of the transition of East Timor and Kosovo towards becoming a state.
In the framework of this plan, it is proposed that the main office of the International Transitional Authority for Gaza be initially located in the city of “Al-Arish” (near the southern border of Gaza in Egypt) and then enter the Gaza Strip with a multinational force, mainly Arabs, and supported by the United Nations. In this plan, the “ultimate unification of all Palestinian territories under the PA” is the goal.
Under this plan, the Palestinian people will no longer be forced to leave the Gaza Strip. But if the plan is finalized, we will see Tony Blair head a 25-person secretariat and a seven-person board of directors to oversee an executive body that will govern Gaza. This has already caused a lot of controversy over the former UK Prime Minister’s consideration of any role.
A very important and sensitive issue is that its staunch critics believe that such a plan would, in fact, reproduce a kind of modern colonialism in the heart of the Middle East. The UK, which has played a key role in the Palestinian crisis over the past century with its colonial policies, including the issuance of the Balfour Declaration, is now once again entering the scene of regional developments as a major player.
On the other hand, many experts and pundits, considering the long and dark history of UK colonialism and the imperialist history of America in the world, believe that this joint plan by Donald Trump and Tony Blair is a planned and targeted attempt to restore Britain's traditional influence in regional equations and impose political guardianship on the Palestinian people and nation.
However, the most important issue is that Washington's open support for this project shows that America continues to seek to impose external solutions to solve the Palestinian issue. Adopting this policy by the United States means ignoring the will and resistance of the people of Gaza and consolidating a structure that is more similar to neo-colonialism than a democratic mechanism for managing the future of this strip.
Even in the meantime, some experts and pundits emphasize that this plan will not only face strong opposition from Palestinian groups, but could also cause new tensions in the region. They believe that the return of a figure like Tony Blair, who is deeply hated for his direct role in the 2003 invasion of Iraq, sends a clear message from the West to the people of the region, namely the reproduction of influence and domination under the guise of "transitional management".
Finally, the US support for Tony Blair's plan in Gaza can be assessed not as a reconstruction program, but as a new stage in the return of UK colonialism to the region; a colonialism that this time appears in the form of political and institutional mechanisms and will face more opposition from the nations of the region than ever before.
