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    Correction Archived Message

    Posted by Mary on October 9, 2019, 9:21 am, in reply to "A visit to the Palestine refugee camps in Lebanon"

    Blair was the PM, not Brown who took over in 2007.

    Beckett was the Foreign Secretary as I said.

    Blair did not condemn the Israeli attack.

    'Lebanon: Blair's other Middle East mistake
    Chris Phillips
    A Journey presents Blair's actions during the 2006 Lebanon war as those of a committed ideologue, not simply Bush's poodle
    9 Sep 2010

    When Tony Blair's memoir, A Journey, was released last week, columnists and reviewers focused on his fairly unrevealing comments about the Iraq war. Less widely reported is Blair's account of his other major misjudgment in the Middle East: his stubborn refusal to call for a ceasefire during the 2006 Lebanon war.

    The conflict, fought for a month between the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) and Hezbollah, was estimated to have cost the lives of 1,191 Lebanese citizens and 159 Israelis (including 43 civilians). As the Shia militia fired rockets at Israeli cities and the IDF responded with massive bombings in Lebanon, Blair was urged by a huge swell of public opinion, the media, his cabinet and foreign policy advisers to join European leaders in calling for an immediate unconditional ceasefire.

    /..
    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2010/sep/09/lebanon-blair-middle-east-mistake

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