Blairism and Israel’s Genocide in Gaza

19 September 2025

Tony Blair is a miraculous politician. Blairism remains a political phenomenon in Britain also during Keir Starmer’s tenure. He is worthy of respect more than Starmer, because unlike the current Prime Minister of Britain, he remained loyal to his guiding principles, to which Starmer fled, seeking to undermine his former ally, Jeremy Corbyn, and additional advocates for Palestinian rights. Regardless of who is occupying 10 Downing Street, the special relationship with the United States seems unshakable, dominated by the superior NATO and G7 ally and its vision and interests towards the world that often deserve no more than opposition and disdain.

In the case of Trump and his team, the appalling abuse of power at home and abroad are unnoticed by the British government and monarchy, who seek to form ordinary trade ties with a criminal regime no less complicit in the perpetration of Israel’s genocide in Gaza, assisted by the British military. Is it surprising, then, that the British government proclaimed prior to Trump’s recent visit to London and in the wake of Corbyn’s protest and investigative activity, that Israel has not committed genocide in Gaza?

Blair rose to power in 1997, moving Labor towards the British center, benefiting from the backing of Murdoch’s tabloid empire and the guidance of Peter Mandelson. British imperial ties with Israel stemming from the need to secure the ‘free flow of goods’ in the Red Sea and to contain Iran’s legitimate scientific development have been supplemented by Mandelson’s close ties to Israel that dwarf any lobbying influence. Starmer’s recruitment of Mandelson as British Ambassador to the United States and other Blair loyalists to his government demonstrated several political realities, ranging from Starmer’s opportunism to the decisive presence of the Israel lobby in the foreign policies of Britain and the United States. Mandelson’s resignation in the wake of revelations about his contacts with convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein is ordinary gossip in the repressed office-oriented British politics. Lord Levy’s shadow has consistently protected Israel until its genocide, always pushing Tony Blair towards Israelness.  

There is a deep-seated anti-Palestinian sentiment within the Labor Party that can be attributed directly to Tony Blair and subsequently to Starmer. Blair’s followers could not tolerate the objections within his party to leading Britain to two illegal wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. So they decided to hit them with the charge of antisemitism, given their sympathy toward Palestinian rights. Key figures in the Labor Party were either sidelined or dismembered. In addition to former party leader Corbyn, who is starting a new party, former London mayor Ken Livingstone and film director Ken Loach were purged. Starmer’s political instincts could not be more cowardly with respect to Palestinian rights in line with a long-standing tradition of British coloniality, starting with the notorious 1917 Balfour declaration, marginalized by following the Israel lobby foreign policy of any American administration.

Blair has developed a rare audacity that transcends the thick skin of the common British politician. Despite committing the grave international crime of aggression twice against two countries in the span of two years, he immediately accepted, after his resignation in 2007 the role of head of the quartet on the Middle East, aiming to do nothing but to advance Israel’s interests. Blair’s tireless international politics with a focus on Israel and against Palestinian rights received another demonstration as he recently joined efforts with Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, in proposing a plan that would benefit Trump economically and increase the Israeli–American international crimes in Gaza. Pursuing the lifestyle of a Prince in his own neighborhood, Jared Kushner seems to enjoy the habit of getting close to his father-in-law by striking deals on the back of Palestinians.

Starmer’s Britain needed Israel’s genocide in Gaza to discover that Palestinians have rights. Until then, it has wholeheartedly joined the United States at the United Nations in not supporting any attempt to gain international recognition for Palestinians’ rights to return, freedom, and sovereignty, and dismantling apartheid, coloniality, and, necessarily Zionism. Britain is so connected to the United States that even here, the former empire differs from other European countries that have expressed their intent to recognize the right of Palestinians to statehood, which most countries of the world have already done. The recognition measure has little to no political significance, also considering the existing two International Court of Justice advisory opinions on the status of all Palestinian territories occupied in 1967, which were avoided by the European Union. It demonstrates once again conventional European hostility towards Palestinians and the fear of America’s wrath should international law be applied reasonably: military humanitarian intervention, establishing an international tribunal to prosecute senior Israeli political and military officials, complete economic sanctions, and more.

After the 7 October 2023 act of resistance operation from Gaza, most of Britain and Starmer to this day have repeated Israel’s lies. An occupying power for decades, and apartheid and colonial state, and with a peculiar ideology of denial, Israel is unable until the current historical moment to acknowledge its military censorship that prohibits revealing that most Israeli civilians killed that day died as a result of Israeli gunfire. No woman was raped by a Palestinian that day or after, yet some in Britain continue to propagate Israel’s falsehoods.      

On 11 September 2001 the United States was shocked by the FBI and the Department of Defense while blaming others for the post end of the Cold War atrocity. The Bush administration decided to seize the moment and waged an illegal war against Afghanistan because it had allegedly, according to Bush and his fellows, harbored the ‘masterminds’ of the perpetrators of the American tragedy. No one attacked Britain that day, not even its own intelligence services. Blair joined the U.S. in its war against Afghanistan a month after the calamity, claiming it was an act of self-defense, stating in parliament that Afghanistan was given an ultimatum but did not respond, and:     

Since September 11, intensive efforts have taken place here and elsewhere to investigate these attacks and determine who is responsible. Our findings have been shared and coordinated with those of our allies, and are clear.

Towards the invasion of Iraq in March 2003, Blair again addressed Parliament in favor of taking his country to an illegal war. The crime of aggression was committed by the United States and Britain, whether weapons of mass destruction were found in Iraq or not. Blair stood firm in his resounding speech:

Tell our allies that at the very moment of action, at the very moment when they need our determination, that Britain faltered?…I will not be party to such a course.

Having the tabloids on his desk and chanting for war, Blair also enjoyed the legal advice of international law expert Christopher Greenwood, who adopted the unfounded legal doctrine to use force advanced by Bush and his team.[1] The simplicity of the argument is baffling, and the denial is worthy of a polity that operates on accusatorial terrorism and lies. He was rewarded by a nomination to the ICJ in 2008 despite the fraudulent legal advice and has never regretted his reasoning, which is a reflection of a significant component of British legal thinking.

Starmer hopes to survive in British politics and to maintain power. It has always been a challenge in Britain to develop the capacity to cope with the daily popular newspapers and a prevalent right-wing nationalist British mood. He should not lose sight of what his priority is and what the future might hold, and absolve himself from expressing his views about Palestine aimed at embarrassingly pleasing his American masters. Accountability for Israel’s genocide in Gaza and its accomplices will be managed in a totally different sphere.    

 Starmer and Blair. Source: The Telegraph, 21 March 2024.

[1] Christopher Greenwood, “International Law and the Pre-emptive Use of Force: Afghanistan, Al-Qaida, and Iraq”, 4 San Diego Int'l L.J. 7 (2003); Clare Dyer, “The 1 million pound a year lawyer with views that are not for sale”, The Guardian, 18 March 2003; Owen Bowcott, “War QC sticks to his guns”, The Guardian, 1 March 2004.