29 September, 2025.
There is little, one might have thought, that the rulers of the world could have done, to make themselves more odious to decent people. And yet, as ever, they have found a way: Sir Tony Blair, it is said, is in discussions to lead “a post-war transitional authority in Gaza”, named the Gaza International Transitional Authority (Gita). This body, we are told, would attempt to endow itself with “supreme political and legal authority” for a period of five years. That such a plan implies a nearly incredible pitch of insolence and turpitude, is almost needless to state. But let us see what salutary lessons might be drawn from this new example of barbarism.
1. Sir Tony (as he is called) is known for his decision to plunge into a naked war of aggression against Iraq in 2003. Iraq was destroyed; religious fanaticism was unleashed; British soldiers murdered and tortured Iraqi civilians. The punishment for Sir Tony Blair—nothing—no legal sanction in any shape. Is it any surprise that a man, accustomed to impunity for his acts, should have no trouble wading ever deeper into vice? The remedy, then, is clear: punish offenders; end the reign of impunity.
2. It follows from the preceding observation that there is nothing in our society that can be called justice: in so far as justice depends on equality before the law, it does not exist. Large swathes of the ruling classes, and their state functionaries, are exempt from the laws that are otherwise supposed to regulate our conduct. And, upon reflection, it is evident that this inequality, and correspondent injustice, is the rule in all class societies. The violence that the state inflicts on innocents, in order to promote sinister class interests, is nearly always outside the pale of legal sanctions, except in peculiar circumstances of scandal and outcry.
3. Democracy is a beloved slogan, and a serviceable topic for pompous speeches, but it is not regarded as a principle worthy of application in the real world. Who, after all, should be authorised to govern Gaza, after the ravage of Israel’s genocide? The rulers of the world, once again, are united in saying: not the Palestinians themselves. The people of Gaza—the victims—will have no part: they will listen and obey. The business of government will be in the hands of the imperial proconsul, whether that is Sir Tony, or some other collection of pliable characters. Not just the substance, but even the forms of democracy are reserved for a special few: the Palestinians are not among them.
The proposal to appoint Sir Tony Blair the head of “Gita” is supported, we are told, by the United States. A man notorious for his own great transgressions against the people of the region, is perhaps to be entrusted, with the blessing of the genocide’s warmest patron, the United States, to set the course of Gaza’s future. Only the wilfully blind cannot see that our world needs a revolution.
Notes in the Margins of the Days 