An Apology 2256

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I am so committed to getting my book finished I really don’t have time or energy to blog at the moment, and realise it has been very desultory the last few weeks. I am well and happy, it is just that writing a properly researched history is incredibly intensive. I realise there is much of great interest happening in the world, but I must sometimes cut myself off from it.

This is why I don’t ask for donations for the blog…

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2,256 thoughts on “An Apology”

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  • Ba'al Zevul

    Endeavour’s Burkina Faso mines are due a ‘site visit’ tomorrow, and as Naguib and Tony are in the region (and may already be there), we think they might drop in. Both Hounde and Karma are under active development. Karma is in the north of the country. There may be an opportunity for an aedes mosquito there:

    https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/burkina-faso

    • Ba'al Zevul

      Naguib Sawiris@NaguibSawirisVisited 3 countries today Ivory Coast , Gambia and Sierra Leone . Many undiscovered natural beauties good for adventures tourists&investors! 7 hours ago15 November 2017.
      Which tends to confirm our impression that Burkino Faso was next. And that Sawiris is the model of crass bastard who will destroy the planet to turn a dollar, of course.

      Other recent tweets from Sawiris reference Sheikh Saleh Kamel, obscenely rich Saudi businessman lately detained by Prince Mohammed ibn-Salman. Intriguing.

  • Ba'al Zevul

    Sawiris confirms via Twitter that indeed he has left Burkina Faso and is currently in Ghana. (he’s a lot more upfront than Tony) We imagine Tony’s still with him, but doesn’t appear in Naguib’s pics – or in anyone’s news after visiting Cote d’Ivoire.

  • Ba'al Zevul

    We have no idea when this was recorded – Blair was in London for the recording – but it was aired today:
    http://www.kitv.com/story/36863156/former-british-pm-tony-blair-to-trump-keep-your-allies-with-you
    In which the elder statesman generously imparts his wisdom to the Donald, if he’s watching, asserts that all his work in Africa is pro-bono, and gives the impression that he is still working for Kazakhstan….pro-bono.

    We very much doubt that importing anything up to a dozen suits apiece into the governments of dodgy African regimes, with the apparent objective of keeping those regimes in power by massaging their PR and safeguarding their cash flows qualifies as pro-bono. Nor does his close and arguably symbiotic relationship with the likes of Naguib Sawiris and Guo Wengui. But we are a voice crying in the wilderness.

    Meanwhile, nothing has been heard from Sierra Leone regarding a Blair visit (where he’s still popular and would be expected to attract press interest), similarly nothing from Burkina Faso or Ghana, so he’s either undercover or got a lift home with someone else. In style, obviously. And pro-bono.

  • Ba'al Zevul

    We are beginning, despite ourselves, to like Sawiris. He may be impossibly rich, incredibly influential and a supporter of al-Sisi, but we get the impression of genuine warmth, a sense of humour, self-critical ability and even benevolence from his Twitter account, which does not seem to be written by a PR team, but by himself. How different is the TBIfTB’s Twitter feed:

    https://twitter.com/institutegc?lang=en

    From which we deduce that education, education, education has now been supplanted by automation, automation, etc in the Blair canon. Tony has rather belatedly realised that vast sums of debt-funded government money are now poised to pour into technological development and the manufacture of progressively more trivial and inessential consumer products based on the silicon chip and the geek in the attic’s code (That’s what technology means, nowadays). And the bunce funnel of the TBIfTB will be positioned to intercept this glittering stream, and divert it into the trousers of the numerous ex-TB advisors and ex-McKinsey suits who populate the multifunctional offices of the extremely secretive TBIfTB.

    But we do rather wonder why Tony,during his time as PM, condemned the UK to reliance on service industries.

  • Ba'al Zevul

    At last, we have sightings of Tony in Sierra Leone and Senegal, pressing the flesh of any functionary with slow reactions…

    https://mwnews24.com/senegal/aps-senegal/tony-blair-recu-en-audience-a-la-presidence-senegalaise/

    https://youtu.be/ID2a8-KAIEk (Sierra Leone)

    Usual guff. Nothing yet from Burkina Faso, but maybe the idea of getting dengue frightened him off; or Ghana. based almost entirely

    Conclusion: Tony has once again associated himself with a foreign plutocrat, (a sponsor of a nondemocratic ME government, heavily into mineral extraction in Africa), in order to sell his own, the UAE’s sovereign wealth fund’s, probably China’s and JP Morgan’s and the plutocrat’s services, trading on his former career as UKPM, to African governments of varying degrees of legitimacy and generally low human rights standards. For a week, travel costs covered by plutocrat, security costs covered by HM Taxpayer. “Wot we have to do, Mr President…is put some of my suits in your government, make some noises about good governance (and this week’s special offer, technology) and, er, that’s it.” ( Grin.)

    That’s the fourth time this year this routine has been played out. Still, it spares the UK from some of the man’s political flatus, which has quickly resumed its emission on his return.

    • Ba'al Zevul

      ERRATA.

      Delete “based almost entirely”
      Amend: “Substantial pension, FCO support and all security costs covered by HM Taxpayer”.
      Amend: “and we’ll make you look squeaky clean on that aid/finance application.” ( Grin.)

    • Ba'al Zevul

      “on his return…” to Luton at 2026. They kept the bugger stacked for 15 minutes, though, probably to let two Wizz jets and an Easyjet in first. A small triumph for the common man.

  • Ba'al Zevul

    Encouraging African women to sell mobile phone accounts to each other, and similarly socially vital entrepreneurial (from the French: taking from the middle (of previously two-party transactions)) activities central to any debt-based economy, is Cherie’s mission in life. And Exxon Mobil emerges shyly from the PR wilderness to acknowledge their support for this.

    https://energyfactor.exxonmobil.com/citizenship/cherie-blair/

    There’s something of a disjunction between Tony and Cherie on this, it would seem:

    http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/exxonmobil-climate-change-oil-gas-fossil-fuels-global-warming-harvard-a7908541.html

    https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/tony-blair-on-fighting-climate-change-do-it-now!-5563

    But that was then.

  • Ba'al Zevul

    We missed Tony in Togo on the 16th and 17th. The guest of the current incumbent of a 50-year family dictatorship, Faure Essozimna Gnassingbé, Tony has been buzzing round Togo for some time (previous visit here http://medafricatimes.com/13373-togo-tony-blair-to-offer-consultancy-service.html ) and as usual the TBIfTB has suits on the ground here.

    On this occasion, Mr Blair enthused…L’ancien Premier Ministre Britannique Tony Blair s’est dit heureux de la paix et de la cohésion sociale qui règnent au Togo et a affirmé son optimisme pour l’avenir du pays.

    http://togopresse.tg/lancien-premier-ministre-britannique-tony-blair-hote-du-president-faure-gnassingbe-a-kara/

    Maybe he wasn]t fully informed on la paix et… la cohésion sociale qui règnent au Togo ?

    …much of whose population has had quite enough of Gnassingbé, and presumably his interpretation of Blair’s advice on good governance :

    https://www.news24.com/Africa/News/togo-faces-calls-to-end-political-crisis-20171117

    “Bloody repression”, even. And Tony is happy to perpetuate a systematic evil :
    https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/togo-and-the-military-problem-in-africa_us_5a0e1994e4b0e6450602e944

  • Ba'al Zevul

    ‘Macavity’s Not There’ dept.

    Blair’s omission of Rwanda from last week’s promotional tour of African nations was faintly mystifying. True, he was concentrating on West African countries with mining potential and perhaps had to stay within his host’s schedule. Sawiris is a busy man. But Blair and Kagame go way back, and a heartwarming recognition of some lovely people who have kept Kagame in power took place on the day after Blair was wafted back to Blighty. The official account here:

    http://www.newtimes.co.rw/section/read/223889/

    An (unofficial) dissection of the honoured personages here:

    https://www.blackagendareport.com/neocolonial-kleptocracy-and-clinton-connections

    Would it have been too much trouble for Tony to make his own way home from Senegal, or, indeed to persuade Naguib to extend the trip a little? After all, it’s only money, and we’re doomed to pay for his security whether he is here or promoting foreign investors in Africa…It was too much trouble, anyway…

    Is it strange that a white options and commodities trader from Chicago would become Co-chair of the Rwandan President’s Advisory Council and CEO of the Rwanda Development Board? Not really. There are similar bonds in other neocolonial kleptocracies, such as Congolese President Joseph Kabila’s with Israeli diamond and mining billionaire Dan Gertler. It makes sense if the Euro partner deals in raw stuff: diamonds, minerals, commodities, options and the like, and Ritchie and Gertler are both deft with the offshore instruments.

    So where were the Clintons and the Blairs?

    Some wondered why Tony and Cheri Blair and the family Clinton were absent at last Saturday’s ceremony in Kigali, despite a Clinton connection theme. They are, after all, Kagame’s most influential supporters. It may be that Kagame simply has to spread the honors around, or that the Clintons and Blairs have become shy of the attention. Especially the Clintons, now that their foundation is under investigation for corruption.

  • Ba'al Zevul

    The TBIfTB offers an excuse for Blair’s presence in Africa last week, on Facebook*, and the Togo government is presumably responsible for a French audio version on YouTube*, which is wordier, but reiterates the TBIfTB’s mission, which is to be paid to make vague noises about facilitating globalisation, from which everyone benefits, etc. Except the opposition to Togo’s dictator, but hey, guys, y’know…

    http://www.lemonde.fr/afrique/article/2017/11/17/au-ghana-les-refugies-togolais-fuient-la-repression-du-regime-de-faure-gnassingbe_5216550_3212.html

    *which you can find for yourself, should you care.

  • Ba'al Zevul

    Why was Blair in Tirana earlier this month?

    ( https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2015/02/an-apology/comment-page-43/#comment-707027 refers)

    Salento, a tourist trap in Puglia, suffers from dodgy drinking water because the local farmers spread shit on their fields, and this gets into the local aquifer. The obvious solution is to stop spreading shit on the fields and/or treat field drain effluent. The Blair solution is to pipe fresh water from Albania across the Adriatic, to the benefit of Rama’s basket-case economy.

    https://translate.google.co.uk/translate?hl=en&sl=sq&u=http://epavarura.com/rama-dhe-tony-blair-bisedime-per-tu-shitur-ujin-shqiptar-italianeve/&prev=search

    which locates Tony in Tirana ‘a few days’ before publication today, which might mean last week, or, due to his African fly-by, earlier in the month, when our original sighting occurred.
    Despite earlier denials,Tony is still in bed with Rama. And Tony is perhaps unaware that Albanians spread as much, er, waste, on their fields as Italians do.

  • Ba'al Zevul

    Blair, Inc announced the end of its activities in Albania last year, but sightings – without photo-ops – have continued there. Cherie would seem to still be embedded, too.

    Formerly the presumption was that Tony had been acting in collaboration with the Gulf sovereign wealth fund, Mubadala, to obtain the investment an increasingly dodgy-looking Edi Rama required to maintain his credibility. But a new name has been suggested as linked to Blair’s: one Vilma Nushi. As usual, even without translation problems (a ‘shashka’ would appear to be a Cossack sword, go figure), Albanian politics are murky and rumour is the order of the day. But we think it might be worth watching this one:

    https://translate.google.co.uk/translate?hl=en&sl=sq&u=http://www.javanews.al/skandali-1-mln-per-lobim-pd-mbrohet-me-sulm-po-tony-blair-me-cfare-parash-vjen/&prev=search

  • Ba'al Zevul

    As the world holds its breath for Cherie’s earthshattering insights on entrepreneurship for global wimmin, we fear that she’s been upstaged already by co-attendee in Hyderabad today, Ivanka Trump. For whom the streets have been cleared of beggars and everything made shiny and nice…

    https://translate.google.co.uk/translate?hl=en&sl=tr&u=http://www.mynet.com/haber/foto-analiz/skandal-o-isim-geldi-diye-ulkedeki-butun-dilencileri-3521558-1&prev=search

    (We’re not sure why much of the reporting on the event is coming from Turkey, but çok teşekkür ederim, anyway.) We hope that the wimmin beggars were treated with the same consideration as the men ones, if not more. Cherie is on record as claiming socialist principles, but not a squeak out of her on this one.

  • Ba'al Zevul

    We were astonished to learn that yesterday had become ‘Giving Tuesday’. Apparently this is a Facebook/Bill Gates production, but we are uncertain what merchandise it is intended to sell. Other than the Tony Blair Institute for Tony Blair, that is:

    https://www.facebook.com/instituteglobal/videos/10156096104783825/

    On #GivingTuesday, we’d like to take the opportunity to say a big thank you to our partners and supporters for their help in our mission to make globalisation work for… …Tony.

    What a miserable thank you. Couldn’t even manage a namecheck or two, Tony?
    But on Giving Tuesday, we are obliged to signal our virtue by remedying this abrupt and peremptory blairing, free of charge and no need to thank us…

    Big up for Benny Netanyahu, whose kindly mentoring made actual progress in achieving civil rights for Palestinians easy to avoid by the former Quartet Representative. Let’s hear it, too, for Abdul Fatah al-Sisi without whose overthrow of the democratically elected government the TBI would not be employed by Egypt. And while we’re there, Abdul’s financial backer, Naguib Sawiris who has awarded the TBI frequent-flyer status on his own aircraft in the course of three tours of Africa this year alone.

    We mustn’t forget Nursultan Nazarbayev, must we? On second thoughts, perhaps we’d better.

    Paul Kagame. One of our bestest friends, and congratulations on extending his presidency indefinitely. His apparent popularity is an inspiration to us all, as are Uhuru Kenyatta’s, and, indeed Edi Rama’s. Shame about Victor Ponta, though. We gave the money to charity, Victor. Please don’t suggest it was one of our own charities, eh?

    Then there’s Moishe Kantor, whose close connection with Vladimir Putin has proved as valuable as his enthusiastic Zionist affinities, and in that context, we must not forget Michael Milken and his wonderful family Foundation. You may have made your money by selling junk bonds, Mike, but you have opened a lot of Jewish doors for the TBI, and the judge was probably an antisemite.

    We’re very big on interfaith dialogue at the TBI, so we’re happy to acknowledge the support of the Mubadala Investment Company, one of our employers, as well as being a useful source of carrots to dangle in front of dictators with crap economies. Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed al-Nayan, we salute you. Or bow to the ground and grovel before you. (@TBI Protocol Director – which? TB)
    Mubadala’s getting very keen on technology, these days, and believe us, Mo, so are we. And there’s Bahrain ‘s Minister of Foreign Affairs Khalid bin Ahmed bin Mohammed Al Khalifa. Great meet in October, Khalid, and super that your family’s still in charge too. Strong government, that’s the thing. Wouldn’t want to lose touch with another royal family, either; Sheikh Sabah Al-Khaled Al-Hamad Al-Sabah of Kuwait, we haven’t visited lately, but thanks for the £43M to date, and we’re always here if you need us again! Well, ok, there’s usually someone in at TBI even if Tony’s out touring Africa . (Cherie says hi to Sheikha Mozah bint Nasser al-Missned of Qatar btw, but we gather Qatar’s part of the evil Iranian empire now, so don’t get your hopes up, Mozah)

    Musn’t forget Saudi Arabia, either. Prince Turki bin Abdullah bin Abdel Aziz, thanks for that nice 1MDB deal with Malaysia and China. Or his cousin, Prince Turki bin Nasser, so glad Tony was able to use his then official position to hush up the al-Yamamah deal. Both sadly locked up now, but we don’t forget our friends, although, sorry, we don’t criticise their despotic family either. Not good business!

    Seeing a lot of Faure Gnassingbé, Togo’s hereditary dictator, happy to keep you in power, my friend; Joseph Muscat, remember what we said about stalling Brexit, Joe; Ilham Aliyev and all the wonderful folks on the Azeri pipeline project, maybe we’ll rock by next year, Ilham. Guo Wengui, hope the Mubadala deal helped, stay safe and away from China. We advise them too. Oh -we almost forgot Bill and Hillary, whose generosity with taxpayers’ money, opaque accountancy and expensive PR inspired our very own family businesses. Still, they seem to have nearly forgotten us, too, so no probs.

    Our boss, Jamie Dimon, of JP Morgan, who has accompanied us to so many networking events, along with all the lads from the Diplomatic Protection Unit (in the air and back at the houses). The folks at Zurich Insurance, and their annual brown envelope. Bernard Arnault, for all the help with the kids, and the job, and the hols. Lastly, but by no means leastly, our wonderful accountants, Bircham Dyson Bell, who constructed the ingenious scrutiny-proof corporate structure we enjoyed until last year’s legal changes forced a rethink. No problem to BDB – we’re still opaque. Thank you all. You’re all important to us, even the little people we haven’t mentioned here. Thank you, (sob, wave hands), oh, thank you.

  • Ba'al Zevul

    It would be good to know why today’s Apology post, which sat awaiting moderation for ~4 hours at least, was subsequently deleted. It contained the J and Z words, once each, in full*, and in a wholly factual context. Otherwise it summarised, not without some work on my part, some of the findings which preceded it on this thread. I would be grateful if I could have guidance on how to avoid wasting my time in future.

    * Because I wanted it moderated, bizarre as that may seem.

  • Ba'al Zevul

    Me, me, me meme…

    http://www.deccanchronicle.com/nation/current-affairs/301117/hyderabad-ges-day-2-mention-of-pm-confuses-cherie-blair.html

    A remark by Telangana minister for information technology & communications K.T. Rama Rao on what views the “Prime Minister” had on marriage, led to doubts about which Prime Minister he was referring to.

    While Cherie Blair, founder of Cherie Blair Foundation for Women thought he was referring to her husband and former UK Prime Minister, Tony Blair, the audience assumed it was a reference to Narendra Modi.

    The photo is of Cherie as she would like to be remembered. Here’s a more up-to-date one –
    http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/article21118622.ece/alternates/FREE_660/29THGES

    God knows what she’s gurning at, but the body language clearly says ‘outa my way, bitch’ to Ivanka.

  • Ba'al Zevul

    Returning to Cote D’Ivoire for the second time in a month, Tony seems to have attended the African Union – EU Summit in Abidjan, rather quietly, and yielding precedence to Donald bloody Tusk, and Angela Merckel, though no doubt he discussed the sabotage of Brexit with both of them. He does not seem to have achieved a meaningful meeting with Nigeria’s Buhari, however, just a quick selfie:

    https://twitter.com/NGRPresident?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor

    Buhari already knows that when Blair exposes his teeth, Blair is on commission. Though he isn’t flying Sawiris Air this time.

  • Ba'al Zevul

    We do not generally deign to repeat Blair’s utterances when he grabs passing media by the sleeve and does an Ancient Mariner number on reversing the referendum on Brexit, with a view to salvaging his (paid) interest in advising other impoverished nations on joining the EU. But this week the French media could not escape and were subjected to a concentrated blairing. The theme was as above: the UK could stay in. (It’s perhaps no coincidence that some of the African countries Blair has afflicted this year have been French sphere-of-influence.) However, the concepts of democracy and national sovereignty are are still alive and well in France, it would seem, and both Guillaume Roquette, the editor of Figaro magazine, and Pierre Moscovici, the EU Commissioner for economic and monetary affairs, have responded to Blair’s wishful thinking. Moscovici:

    “Tony Blair se trompe. On ne peut pas prendre ses désirs pour des réalités. La Grande-Bretagne a voté le Brexit par référendum, il n’y aura pas de marche arrière”, a assuré l’ancien ministre de François Hollande, avant d’expliquer : “Tony Blair a tort pour mars 2019, il a peut-être raison pour l’avenir. Mais avant de revenir, les Britanniques devront partir.”

    You’re not getting back in until you’ve actually gone…

    http://www.lejdd.fr/international/ue/pierre-moscovici-sur-le-brexit-tony-blair-se-trompe-3507629

    Roquette gets it, and Blair gets a Roquette:

    Qu’est-ce que c’est que l’intérêt d’un pays ? Est-ce que c’est juste le taux de croissance et l’enrichissement ? Ou est-ce que c’est une forme d’indépendance et une forme de volonté de préserver ce qu’on est, son identité ? Parce que c’est pour ces raisons-là que les Britanniques ont dit non.

    http://www.fdesouche.com/914581-coup-de-sang-directeur-figaro-magazine-contre-tony-blair-voudrait-sasseoir-vote-brexit

    Precisely. Even the French understand us better than Blair does.

  • Ba'al Zevul

    FRIENDS REUNITED
    No doubt to his chagrin, Tony was not present in an official capacity at the AUEU Summit in Abidjan this week. He had to catch up with Rwanda’s president-probably-for-life Paul Kagame on the sidelines….ie in a room which has just been vacated by the real heid yins..:

    http://www.newtimes.co.rw/section/read/224609/

    Scroll down quite a long way, Blair isn’t in any of the group shots. How are the mighty fallen*. And that’s a funny handshake. Perhaps Tony caught carpal tunnel syndrome from his heroine?

    *Not nearly far enough.

  • Ba'al Zevul

    Services were temporarily suspended while Tony wrote some more stuff for all churnalists to c&p, including the BBC, natch. Brexit will put the NI peace process at risk, apparently. Hang on a minute. Wasn’t the NI peace process done and dusted? Didn’t Tony, singlehanded, and personally dodging the bullets, momentously bring an end to centuries of warfare with a single upward movement of an immaculately-coiffed eyebrow? Seems not.

    Additionally, The BBC today invited him to blair on the topic of a land value tax, which the Saviour of the People has adopted as his very own, notwithstanding that it was floated in Labour’s manifesto last time. When Blair was rubbishing Corbyn for all he was worth, and encouraging The People to vote for anything but Labour. And what, in any case, is the problem a land value tax is intended to solve? The lack of housing, of course. And why is there a lack of housing? The BBC, ironically enough, can answer that one:

    Mr Blair and his chancellor, Gordon Brown, presided over an unprecedented boom in house prices, fuelled by cheap credit and a shortage of affordable rented accommodation.

    The “right-to-buy” phenomenon had led, as some on the left had predicted, to a massive depletion in council housing stock – made worse by the refusal of successive governments to allow local authorities to spend the windfall they received from council house sales on building new ones.

    The housing bubble was also fuelled by the “buy-to-let” phenomenon, as speculators bought up rundown former local authority housing as a source of income.

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-14380936

    Just add that to the growing list of things whose long-term consequences Blair ignored in favour of a cosmetic fix and approval from Murdoch. And on which he has now completely reversed his opinion. And on which this jumped-up, unelected narcissist pretends to speak with authority.

  • Ba'al Zevul

    Hoping perhaps that his posturing over Brexit will push his current whereabouts down Google, Tony has as usual departed a shitstorm of his own making and taken refuge in Cairo. Again.

    https://en.el-balad.com/2358667

    Which reminds us, as possibly relevant, that Tony Blair was appointed head of the European Council on Tolerance and Reconciliation، a non-governmental organization founded in 2008 that campaigns against religious and political extremism in Europe.

    We’d like to remind the reader that the ECTR is a spinoff of the European J**ish Council, founded by Putin ally, oligarch Moishe Kantor, who is a staunch supporter of Is***l’s current policies, not known for their tolerance of or willingness to reconcile with a good part of its own population. The EJC itself is not regarded by a majority of its potential members as being representative, despite its attachment to the EU logo. It is utterly silent on the issues of tolerance and reconciliation in the J**ish world.

    Blair’s continued meddling in the Middle East would be comic had its previous consequences not been unremittingly tragic, and still unfolding. And if he is advertising himself as ECTR head these days, he’s scraping the bottom of the barrel of grandiose job titles he can claim; while cementing his presumably productive relationship with Is***l. Pathetic.

  • Ba'al Zevul

    Mystic Ba’al prognosticated correctly:

    https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2015/02/an-apology/comment-page-43/#comment-702509

    that the Blair tongue was hovering near the cheek(s) of Avi Gabbay, who is currently promoting himself as a replacement for Netanyahu. And so it proves. Gabbay attended the Saban Forum at the weekend. This is effectively AIPAC in drag, Chaim Saban, its Egyptian-J**ish founder, has been explicit, according to Wikipedia:

    Saban says his greatest concern is to protect Israel. At a conference in Israel, Saban described his formula. His three ways to influence American politics were: make donations to political parties, establish think tanks, and control media outlets. (Wikipedia: Chaim Saban)

    And that is what the Forum’s about. Tony and Chaim are on first-name terms with Chaim’s money:

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/tony-blair/8999602/The-Blairs-billionaire-friends-give-more-than-a-million-dollars-to-their-charities.html

    As well as Gabbay, Jared Kushner and Netanyahu (“Iran like Nazi Germany”…not antiPersic at all, Bibi?) were present. We also think Tony was there, but this is not directly confirmed in the public domain. And we speculate that Gabbay also flew into Cairo this morning from New York, to promote his different approach (leading to a similar endgame) to the region’s ongoing disaster. Which may well include the Trump – Kushner plan to make Jerusalem the capital of Is***l. Cue more disaster.

  • Ba'al Zevul

    A new title:”The Tony Blair Foundation for Interfaith Dialogue”. We hadn’t come across this one before. Is it a company? Is it a charity? Ho, hum. More digging required*. Starting here, we suppose.

    http://www.egypttoday.com/Article/1/35569/Al-Azhar-Grand-Imam-meets-former-PM-Tony-Blair-in

    On the face of it, rather an encouraging meeting. Despite being Mubarak’s man, and while never going so far as to include his brother Shi’a Muslims in his version of legitimacy, his views on the day’s question of the Judaification of Jerusalem were once criticised as antisemitic, according to Wikipedia…

    In 2011, following the Egyptian revolution, the Muslim Brotherhood held a rally at the Al-Azhar mosque to oppose what it described as the Judaization of Jerusalem. He said at the rally that “the al-Aqsa Mosque is currently under an offensive by the Jews” and “we shall not allow the Zionists to Judaize al-Quds [Jerusalem]”. He also alleged that Jews around the world were trying to prevent Islamic and Egyptian unity.
    The rally was criticized by the New York Daily News as antisemitic.
    ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmed_el-Tayeb)

    Should he succeed in conveying his informed opinion on Jerusalem and Takfirism to Tony, we might expect a shift in the latter’s attitude to Saudi and the Gulf states, as well as to the nation he admires most. Chances are, Tony wasn’t listening, though.

    *. Google knows naught of the Tony Blair Foundation for Interfaith Dialogue, but it sounds better than Moishe Kantor’s Shill. The Tony Blair Faith Foundation was wound up this year, and the Charities Commissioners specified that its residual funds be spent only on its original aims. There had, it seems, been some unease about the interpenetration of the components of the former Blair, Inc. Perhaps this is a branch – or ‘pillar’ as he would call it – of the new, wholly corporate Tony Blair Institute. No matter. We are unable to scrutinise its accounts either.

    • Ba'al Zevul

      Following this meeting, the good imam appears not to have absorbed the fundamental message revealed to him by the Middle East Meddler, and issued the following statement:

      http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/Flash.aspx/404908

      Sheikh Ahmed el-Tayeb, the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar which is the supreme Islamic institution of Sunni Muslims*, on Tuesday warned that “the gates of hell” will open if the United States goes through with plans to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and move its embassy to Jerusalem.

      In a statement published following his meeting with former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, el-Tayeb said such a move would ignite the feelings of anger among all Muslims, endanger global peace and increase tensions, divisions and hatred around the world.

      In plain: there is some shit I will not eat, Tony.

      Trump’s gone ahead and done it anyway. Duck and cover.

      *Egyptian Sunni Muslims in agreement with the regime, that is.

      • Ba'al Zevul

        Well, maybe a little disagreement was inevitable: the Tony Blair Institute for Changing Islam Into Centrism yesterday announced that Islamic scholars were ‘failing to challenge the ISIL narrative*’, and maybe el-Tayeb thought Tony was having a go at him.

        There is no sign yet of Tony’s challenging the Trump narrative yet, though. Nor will he, although he would be joining the Gulf states, Saudi Arabia, official Egypt, the EU and Turkey, inter alia, if he did. Yet another issue ducked for I***l.

        *When their narrative is challenged, IS will surrender unconditionally, of course.

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