Blair considered a ‘special partnership’ between israel and NATO

Tony Blair considered establishing a “privileged Israeli partnership” with Nato and the European Union, newly released British government documents show.

A confidential Downing Street paper, drawn up in October 2004, also considered the idea of allowing Israel to take over “five main settlement blocs in the West Bank” which would “become part of Israel”.

In addition, the paper suggested ending the Palestinian right of return to their home areas in Israel from where they were expelled in 1948. “They will either return to Palestine or stay where they are”, the document stated.

The considerations, outlined in a document entitled “Reviving the Middle East Peace Process”, were drawn up at a time of “continued turmoil in Israel and Palestine” when the peace process was stalling.

It was prepared in advance of Tony Blair’s visit to Washington DC in November 2004 to meet newly re-elected president George W. Bush and sought “to reassert US leadership” over Middle East peace negotiations.

The considerations about Israel’s partnership with Nato and the EU were part of a process to offer Israel “reassurance on key final status issues” and “incentives” to engage in serious peace moves.

The UK proposals would have involved an international conference on Palestine in 2005, the creation of a Palestinian state and the beginning of “final status” negotiations in 2006.

“The Palestinians too will need to be pressed into negotiations”, the document stated. The incentives for the Palestinian side included that “mid-90% of the West Bank would be in the Palestinian state” and that “land annexed by Israel would be compensated by land swaps”.

There would also be “generous international recognition (political and financial) of their having sacrificed the right of return”.

‘Deep cooperation’

If Israel and the Palestinians were to seriously engage in a peace process in 2005, EU membership was “not an option” for Israel, the UK paper noted.

But it added: “We could construct a special ‘European Neighbourhood Agreement’ giving Israel access to the Single Market and EU programmes, Customs Unions and EEA [European Economic Area] membership.”

This would have gone well beyond the 1995 EU-Israel Association Agreement which promotes free trade in certain goods. Also on the table, according to the document, was “deep foreign policy, security and judicial cooperation” with the EU.

“With Nato”, the document continued, “we could construct another special partnership including beefed up political consultations and contact with the Nato Standards Agency on armaments development”.

Nato’s Standardisation Office, as it is now called, enhances the interoperability and operational effectiveness of Alliance military forces.

Israel had been allowed to join Nato’s ‘Mediterranean Dialogue’ in 1995.

‘Our ability to influence events’

The Downing Street document makes clear that the reason for the push was that “successful pursuit of the Peace Process has the capacity to transform the US and Western international reputation and our ability to influence events, particularly in the Middle East”.

The turmoil in Israel and Palestine and lack of progress towards peace was “the single biggest source of damage to US, UK and Western interests in the Middle East”.

In particular, the “downward spiral” of continuing Palestinian economic decline and “the perception [that] Israel is dictating its terms to the United States”, was seen as “a rebuff to American leadership”.

Progress towards a peace agreement was seen as essential to “building support for our international agenda and releasing energy for Middle Eastern reform”.

The document was drawn up in the same month that the Israeli military killed 165 Palestinians, mainly in Gaza, in October 2004.

This was described by an official in the Foreign Office peace process team as “the deadliest month for Palestinians” since Operation Defensive Shield, which was Israel’s large-scale military intervention in the West Bank in April 2002.

At the time, British officials wanted to see Israel implement proposals made by then prime minister Ariel Sharon to “disengage” from the occupied West Bank and Gaza.

In 2005, Israel withdrew from over 20 settlements in Gaza and four in the West Bank, but the process was short-lived and Israeli settlements continued to grow over subsequent decades. There are now over 800,000 Jewish settlers in the occupied West Bank.