NEW YORK, Sept 30 (The African Portal) – Leaders from Arab and Muslim nations and Europe have welcomed the peace plan unveiled by Trump and Netanyahu, who have warned Hamas to accept the deal or Israel will ‘finish the job’ in Gaza. DW has more.
Netanyahu says Israel will ‘forcibly resist’ Palestinian statehood
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday flatly rejected the idea of Palestinian statehood, the prospects of which were left open in US President Trump’s so-called 20-point peace plan.
In a video posted on the messaging app Telegram, Netanyahu said he had “absolutely not” agreed to the creation of a Palestinian state, an idea that he likened to “national suicide” for Israel last week when addressing the United Nations General Assembly.
The Israeli leader made clear that no clause stipulating the creation of such a state was contained in Trump’s plan before vowing to ‘forcibly resist’ any effort to create one.
Divided reactions to Tony Blair’s proposed Gaza role
US President Donald Trump surprised many on Monday by announcing that his plan for peace in Gaza included a “board of peace” to be headed by himself and former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair.
Blair, who was an unapologetic supporter of George W. Bush’s ill-fated 2003 invasion of Iraq on claims that the country possessed weapons of mass destruction, is seen by many in the Middle East with great mistrust.
Moreover, considering Trump’s previous statements, as well as Britain’s highly complicated role in the region for the past century, many fear the board to be nothing more than a vehicle for the neo-colonial takeover of Gaza.
On Monday, Mustafa Barghouti, general secretary of the Palestinian National Initiative political party, told the Washington Post newspaper: “We’ve been under British colonialism already. He [Blair] has a negative reputation here. If you mention Tony Blair. The first thing people mention is the Iraq war.”
Francesca Albanese, the UN’s special rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories and herself no stranger to controversy, blasted the idea in a social media post, writing, “Tony Blair? Hell No” and suggesting he should be put on trial at the International Criminal Court (ICC).
More positively, others point to Blair’s previous role leading the so-called Middle East Quartet representing the UN, US, EU and Russia in the region. In that capacity the former statesman was charged with fostering institution building and economic development.
However, critics say he did little to stop illegal Israeli settlements during his tenure, which stretched from 2007 to 2015.
More recently, he has led the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, which claims to advocate for “turning bold ideas into reality.”
Others, such as the current UK Health Secretary, Wes Streeting, say that although Blair’s appointment “will raise some eyebrows,” the former politician’s track record is not all bad, pointing to his role in brokering the 1998 Good Friday Agreement that ended decades of conflict in Northern Ireland.
“If he can bring those considerable skills there,” Streeting told the BBC, “in both diplomacy and statecraft… that can only be a good thing.”
Credit: DW
