The Board of Peace Is an Abject Failure, and Palestinians Are Paying the Price

It promised to bring ‘everlasting peace’: Gaza was to be rebuilt; military operations halted; ‘full aid’ given; and an International Stabilisation Force set up. It has failed on every count.

Tony Blair, founding member of the Board of Peace executive board and former British prime minister, speaking in New York last week. Photo by Ryan Murphy/Getty Images

Almost 25 years ago, Sir Tony Blair played the undignified role of international bagman for George W. Bush, selling the illegal invasion of Iraq to the British public.

Today the former prime minister is a bagman for another U.S. president, Donald Trump.

Karl Marx remarked that history repeats itself, first as tragedy, then as farce. That comment neatly encapsulates Tony Blair’s role as a senior founding member of Trump’s Board of Peace.

Last week, at a Board of Peace gathering on the fringes of the United Nations General Assembly, Blair had the audacity to lecture Palestinians on the need to drop the term “free Palestine”.

Sir Tony explained: “For Palestinians living in Gaza, they don’t need a slogan, they need a solution.”

But what solution did Blair’s Board of Peace have to offer?