Tony Blair regrets applying sanctions to Hamas after they won the Gazan general election back in 2006. The sanctions stipulated what can be allowed into Gaza and what cannot. Gaza has been hit hard by this with some saying Gaza will not be suitable for human habitation by 2020. The blockade enforced by Israel on one side and Egypt on the other is slowly strangling the life out of the Gazan economy such as it is.
Also, the continuous wars against Israel have destroyed much of the Gazan infrastructure and re-building remains slow to non-existent.
Hamas beat its rival Palestinian organisation Fatah in general elections that the West backed at the time. The US, UK and Israel then asked the new Hamas government to keep to the agreements of the previous Fatah government but it seems Hamas refused. Fatah before the Gazan general election was in peace talks with Israel and had recognised the Jewish nations right to exist.
Blair's hindsight
Blair himself has said instead of slapping sanctions on the Hamas government all sides should have talked. It seems though, at the time, Blair was being carried along by George Bush and what Israel wanted.
Hindsight is a wonderful thing but you cannot go back in time, unfortunately, to right what went wrong.
Fatah and Hamas are at present in negotiations to patch up their differences which is important. It is important because the Palestinians when facing Israel either in armed conflict or in political negotiations need a united front.
Fatah and Hamas have been sworn enemies ever since Hamas won a democratic general election in Gaza and then started running Gaza like a dictatorship.
Whereas the West Bank is run by Fatah and people there enjoy a better standard of living and are freer than their compatriots in Gaza. Of course, Israel is still the de-facto ruler of the West Bank despite the Palestinian autonomy where clashes break out between Israelis security forces and Palestinian demonstrators. Israel is still building settlements for Jews in the West Bank in defiance of the United Nations, so all is not entirely rosy there either.
Tony Blair: Moderator II
All the years that Tony Blair was the special envoy in his job as a moderator between the Palestinians and Israelis what did he achieve? Unfortunately, the short answer has to be nothing as the situation is still the same as ever it was.
Since he left the job of being Prime Minister in 2007, Tony Blair has been looking for a role that will give him the same opportunity as being Prime Minister did. There were rumours he wanted to be European Union President but obviously, that is now not going to happen. He has founded an organisation in the UK 'The Tony Blair Institute' to counter the forces of Brexit popularism and what he sees as the disastrous result of the UK leaving the EU.
Tony Blair, according to an article on RT is going to become the moderator between Spain and Catalonia. The question is if he could not bring the Palestinians and Israelis together what chance will he have in this situation?
