Tony Blair
Photo: AFP
Blair 'censored by Jewish lobby'
Hamas editorial says 'Jewish lobby' got Bush administration to silence Blair; Islamic Jihad: Blair symbolizes Balfour declaration
Former British Prime Minister and new Quartet envoy to the Middle East Tony Blair has been censored by the "Jewish lobby," a prominent Palestinian journalist said in an article which appeared on a Hamas
website on Tuesday.
Amayreh, a Hebron-based journalist, works for, among others, al-Jazeera's English-language website, and Iran's Islamic Republic News Agency.
"The Bush administration, bullied by an extraordinarily powerful Jewish lobby, reportedly asked Blair to refrain from discussing 'matters of substance' and 'final-status issues' pertaining to the Palestinian question," Khalid Amayreh said in an article in the Palestinian Information Center, a website operated by Hamas's Damascus-based politburo.
Hamas:
‘We are willing to have contact with anyone, as long as it’s not the occupier,’ spokesmen for the Islamist group says ahead of Quartet envoy’s arrival in region
"Palestinian officials insist that Blair's entire mission will fail unless he tackles the core issues and effects a momentum toward ending the 40-year-old Israeli occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza Strip," Amayreh added.
Meanwhile, responding to Blair's first visit to the region as the Quartet's envoy, Islamic Jihad said on its website that Blair "symbolizes Britain's ill-fated promise," a reference to the Balfour Declaration.
"Blair symbolizes Britain's ill-fated promise to provide support and protection to the Zionist entity (and) to give up sites on the land of Palestine, enabling Zionists to establish a Jewish State," the Islamic Jihad said.
In its statement, Islamic Jihad added that "Blair as prime minister in Britain over seven years did not display positive attitudes... he was, like (US President George) Bush, a war preacher in the region, supporting Iraq's invasion."
The Islamic Jihad accused Blair of deceiving Palestinians with a promise to "move towards establishing a Palestinian state" after the Iraq war, saying that the idea "evaporated" after the 2003 Iraq invasion.
"The quartet, since its founding, has not played an active role in stopping Zionist crimes against the Palestinian people or preventing the Judaization of the occupied Palestinian territories," Islamic Jihad declared, adding: "Blair will leave with empty hands politically from his visit to the region."
