Israeli PM’s diary shows close links with western politicians

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s 2024 diary has revealed close ties to US Republican Senator Lindsey Graham and former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, according to the Middle East Eye and agencies on November 24th.

The diary was published at the request of Hatzlaha, a non-profit organisation, and showed that Netanyahu held seven meetings and nine phone calls with Graham.

In 2023, Graham endorsed a resolution which allows the US to strike Iran, to discourage Iranian retaliation against Israeli strikes in southern Lebanon.

Although much of the diary has been redacted due to national security concerns, it also revealed that Netanyahu had met with Blair seven times.

Exact conversations were not made public, according to Haaretz, although meetings with Graham reportedly occurred when the senator was attempting to procure additional weaponry for Israel and undermine an arrest warrant for Netanyahu by the International Criminal Court (ICC), which has met with sanctions from the US.

Following a conversation with Netanyahu, Graham had reportedly criticised his government’s decision to suspend arms sales to Israel, saying: “If we stop weapons necessary to destroy the enemies of the state of Israel at a time of great peril, we will pay a price.”

Under the former US President Joe Biden, the US transferred more than $17.9 billion worth of weapons, military and political aid to Israel, despite allegedly knowing that Israeli forces were using the weapons to commit crimes against humanity.

Blair has also reportedly been under consideration for a leading role in post-war Gaza, which would be overseen by billionaires and businesspeople.

Under the US-backed Gaza peace plan, the enclave would be overseen by a “Board of Peace” in which Palestinians would have no role in its governance, which has been criticised as a colonial endeavour.

Blair has also been accused of supporting the depopulation of Gaza. He is also listed as an honorary patron of the Jewish National Fund (JNF), a charity which has played a major role in the forced displacement of Palestinians since it was founded in 1901.

What’s more, it was reported on August 28th that Blair was participating in talks alongside Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, who has also faced criticism for proposing that Gaza’s population be expelled to make way for a “very valuable” waterfront property.

Kushner’s links to Netanyahu are similarly noteworthy, as the two have reportedly been close friends since the 1990s, with Kushner being a key advocate of normalising relations between Arab nations and Israel via the US-backed Abraham Accords.

Middle East Eye and agencies, Maghrebi.org