'Security threat' turns Blair back from Gaza

So what was the “specific security threat” that kept Tony Blair out of Gaza today? The visit by ex-British prime minister and special Middle East peace envoy Blair would have been a boon for Hamas, the rulers of Gaza. Blair was pointedly not seeing any Hamas officials --only traders and UN officials and touring a sewage plant-- but he would have been the highest profile diplomat to visit the blockaded Palestinian territory since Hamas seized it in June 2007.

Let's see…who didn't want Blair going to Gaza? The Israelis can't have been too enthused about his visit; any visitor is struck by the devastation and poverty of the besieged enclave. But the Israelis aren't the only ones. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas can't have been too pleased about it, either. Abbas is already playing second banana to Hamas in Gaza and is sulking over the fact that Hamas in large part has managed to keep up its end of the bargain and stop militants from lobbing rockets into southern Israel –-upping their credibility among Palestinians and Arab states. Abbas's Fatah militia still has many sympathizers in Gaza capable of carrying out mischief –-or worse-- against Blair.

It was the Israelis, Time was told, who warned Blair's delegation to cancel the trip because of the vague and all-encompassing term "security threat". The UN security experts had previously cleared the visit, and examined every step that Blair's convoy would take as it moved through the blasted-out rubble around Erez crossing into northern Gaza where he was to inspect a waste water project and talk to traders about how the year-long economic-blockade has crippled them. The security team encountered nothing suspicious.

Hamas didn't mind that Blair snubbed them. It was good PR to have him in Gaza, so Hamas went all-out setting up checkpoints and security patrols along the route that Blair was to travel inside Gaza. A Hamas spokesman said it knew of no security threat to the ex-prime minister and blamed “Israel and other parties” who didn't want Blair to witness “the catastrophe of the siege on Gaza”.

I'll bet that Blair won't be knocking at the gates of Gaza any time soon, no matter if the threat is real or invented.

By Tim McGirk/Jerusalem