As Gaza lies in ruins, with over 70,000 Palestinians killed by relentless Western-backed Israeli warfare, since October 2023, a grotesque proposal has surfaced from the corridors of imperial Washington and colonial Whitehall. Backed by the Trump administration, the plan imagines a “Gaza International Transitional Authority” (GITA), a five-year interim regime to govern the Strip before ceding control to a “reformed” Palestinian Authority. At its helm? Tony Blair, the former British prime minister whose messianic self-image and imperial nostalgia make him not a saviour, but a liability. Leaked plans, reported by Haaretz and the Times of Israel, reveal a seven-person board chaired by Blair, packed with global billionaires issuing binding decrees on legislation, security, and appointments.
Palestinians? Relegated to “neutral” administrative roles, stripped of veto power. This isn’t governance; it’s a neocolonial carve-up, echoing the British mandates that once fractured the region.
Mustafa Barghouti, Palestinian National Initiative leader, calls it a “disaster,” warning of resurgent “British colonialism.” Francesca Albanese, UN special rapporteur on Palestinian human rights, is unequivocal: “Tony Blair? Hell no. Hands off Palestine.”
Now, this outrage is fuelling a surge in global opposition, exemplified by a Change.org · The world’s platform for change launched on October 14, 2025, explicitly opposing Blair’s appointment. Titled “Oppose Tony Blair’s Appointment to Gaza Administration,” it decries his role in ethical and legal breaches, demanding impartial leaders committed to justice amid Gaza’s humanitarian catastrophe. With thousands of signatures pouring in from activists worldwide, the petition underscores a broader backlash against entrusting Gaza’s future to a figure synonymous with war crimes and imperial overreach. Yet Blair’s backers – Jared Kushner, Gulf royals, and his own Tony Blair Institute, already whispering about Gaza reconstruction contracts – tout his “experience” as Quartet (peace) envoy (2007-2015). For Palestinians, that experience spells failure, tainted by conflicts of interest and a worldview that casts Blair as God’s emissary on Earth, a delusion even his cynical spin doctor, Alastair Campbell, tried to rein in.
Blair – for God and Empire
Blair’s self-perception as a quasi-divine figure is no secret. In my 2005 study, “’I’m Proud of the British Empire’: Why Tony Blair Backs George W. Bush” (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1467-923X.2005.00674.x), I noted how his foreign policy fused imperial pride with a messianic zeal. Blair, a devout Christian convert to Catholicism post-premiership, often framed his decisions through a spiritual lens, reportedly asking himself, “What would Jesus do?” before major, frequently catastrophic, calls. This wasn’t just private piety. During the Iraq War buildup, as he aligned with George W. Bush’s crusade against the “axis of evil,” Blair’s moral certitude bordered on the Christ-like. Alastair Campbell, his communications chief and a self-professed atheist, famously intervened, admonishing, “We don’t do God,” to keep Blair’s religiosity from alienating voters. But the impulse persisted, driving Blair to see himself as a righteous arbiter in a chaotic world, destined to reorder “failed states” like Iraq – or now, Gaza.
Blair Does Wars
That hubris fuelled catastrophe. The 2003 Iraq invasion, which Blair co-engineered, was illegal under international law, lacking UN Security Council authorization. The Chilcot Inquiry (2016) exposed how Blair exaggerated Saddam Hussein’s weapons threat, sidelined cabinet debate, and privately assured Bush, “You can count on us,” despite warnings from his attorney general, Peter Goldsmith, that the war risked illegality. Kofi Annan, then-UN secretary-general, confirmed its unlawful status. The fallout? Over 179 British troops and hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians dead, with a power vacuum spawning ISIS. John Prescott, Blair’s deputy, later admitted the war’s illegality, a stinging rebuke from Labour’s inner circle. Peter Mandelson, Blair’s confidant, New Labour architect, and widely known as the “prince of darkness”, once quipped in exasperation, “Does TB not do wars?”
A better question would have been: “Does TB ever do peace?”
Blair’s imperial nostalgia, which I’ve documented, compounded the disaster. In 1997, he nearly declared to a Manchester crowd, “I am proud of the British Empire,” a line axed by aides fearing backlash. Yet it revealed his mindset: a belief that Anglo-American power could remake the world in Britain’s colonial-era image, updated for the post-Cold War world. He saw 9/11 as a chance to make up for the “wasted opportunity” of the 1990s, a chance to impose order through intervention. Iraq was his proving ground; Gaza, under his proposed GITA, risks becoming another.
As Middle East peace envoy, an appointment that failed to register even a hint of irony, Blair’s tenure was a masterclass in futility. Tasked with bolstering Palestinian institutions, he instead enabled Israeli settlement expansion, backing the post-2006 Hamas boycott that deepened the Fatah-Hamas rift and cemented Gaza’s isolation. Nearly 100 trips to the region yielded little beyond moving his Jerusalem office out of a hotel. Peace talks collapsed, with Blair criticized by Palestinian officials as a “colossal failure” for his pro-Israel bias and limited mandate. His messianic streak didn’t help. Believing he could channel divine wisdom, Blair prioritised Western and Israeli interests over Palestinian agency, alienating the very people he was meant to empower.
Blair – For God and Mammon
Worse, his envoy role doubled as a personal ATM. While mediating, Blair advised autocrats like Egypt’s Abdel Fattah al-Sisi during the 2014 Gaza war, pocketing millions through his Tony Blair Faith Foundation and Associates consultancy. Deals with Gulf monarchs and Kazakh oligarchs shielded his earnings from scrutiny, building a fortune estimated at $60 million. Post-Downing Street, he joined JPMorgan Chase (£2 million annually), Zurich Financial Services (£500,000 yearly), and Lansdowne Partners, a Tory donor’s hedge fund, leveraging his global contacts. In 2012, he brokered Glencore’s $36 billion mining bid by charming Qatar’s emir, earning hefty fees. His institute’s “calls with different groups” on Gaza reconstruction? Code for pitching investors, not uplifting Palestinians.
The GITA proposal reeks of this strategy: a billionaire board wielding “supreme political and legal” power for five years, sidelining Palestinians while eyeing energy and infrastructure contracts. Blair’s Jesus complex – asking “What would Jesus do?” while hobnobbing with emirates – makes him uniquely ill-suited. Gaza’s 2.3 million people, trapped in an open-air prison, need no saviour cloaked in colonial robes. His Northern Ireland success, often cited by defenders like David Lammy, rested on inclusive talks, not top-down edicts. Gaza demands the same: a ceasefire, hostage release, and UN-led elections, not a Blair-led protectorate.
The Trump-Blair axis – MAGA bravado meets Blairite sanctimony – ignores the occupation’s root: Israel’s apartheid-like control, condemned by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. Appointing Blair, who sees himself as God’s representative on earth, risks enshrining a neocolonial farce, compounding tragedy.
Palestinians deserve self-determination, not a messiah who prays for peace while profiting from war. The burgeoning Change.org petition (Change.org · The world’s platform for change), echoing years of anti-Blair activism from his knighthood protests, signals that the world’s people and global civil society won’t stand idly by.
About the Author
Inderjeet Parmar
Inderjeet Parmar is a professor of international politics and associate dean of research in the School of Policy and Global Affairs at City St George’s, University of London, a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences, and writes the American Imperium column at The Wire. He is an International Fellow at the ROADS Initiative think tank, Islamabad, on the board of the Miami Institute for the Social Sciences, USA, and on the advisory board of INCT-INEU, Brazil. Author of several books including Foundations of the American Century, he is currently writing a book on the history, politics, and crises of the US foreign policy establishment.