Tony Blair's staff attended meetings about barbarous ‘Gaza riviera' plan. That's too gross for satire
Donald Trump
posted a video to his social media accounts, an AI-generated depiction of a postwar
Gaza
, in which
Dubai
-style skyscrapers tower over palm-tree lined beaches, and superyachts glide through crystal blue coastal waters. The video was a kind of fever-dream emanation of the Trump id: a Vegas-style casino-hotel called 'Trump Gaza'; children, bathed in golden twilight sun, dancing on the beach as dollar bills rain down from the heavens; high end luxury cars; many golden statues of golden president himself.
And over it all a propulsive Eurodance track, likewise AI-generated, in which a voice rhythmically intones a series of Trumpian affirmations: 'No more tunnels, no more fear/Trump Gaza is finally here/Trump Gaza shining bright/Golden future, a brand new light/Feast and dance, the deal is done/Trump Gaza number one.'
With its queasily hyperrealist AI-slop aesthetic, its naked depiction of a programme of ethnic cleansing and its insistent repetition of Trump's graven image, the video amounted to a morbid document of our particular historical moment.
In recent days another, related, document has been brought to light, one which recalls the 'Trump Gaza' video in its vision for a postwar redevelopment of the Palestinian enclave. Last weekend, the
Financial Times published an investigative report
on a plan to build, out of the ruins of a destroyed Gaza, a Dubai-style dynamic trading and tourism hub; hundreds of thousands of Palestinians would be paid, via crypto tokens, to leave the enclave.
READ MORE
The plan is the work of a group of Israeli businessmen, with the involvement of the US consultancy company Boston Consulting Group (BCG). This is the organisation that helped establish the highly controversial and secretive Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which the Israeli government has contracted to run aid distribution centres in Gaza. The organisation has been condemned by the UN and humanitarian groups as running cover for the displacement of Palestinians. The
UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights
says more than 500 starving Palestinians have been killed near its aid distribution sites.
The development plan has been presented to the Trump administration for approval, and is clearly inspired by Trump's infamous proposal, announced off-the-cuff during a meeting with Binyamin Netanyahu last February, that the US would 'take over' Gaza and redevelop it into a 'riviera of the Middle East'.
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'We'll own it': Trump's shocking plan to take over Gaza and displace two million Palestinians
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One notable aspect of the report is that the Tony Blair Institute (TBI), a neoliberal think tank founded by the former UK prime minister with funding from both the US State Department and the Saudi Arabian government, participated in meetings about the plan. (The FT reporters approached the Tony Blair Institute for comment, and were initially told the group had no involvement whatsoever in the preparation of the plan; when the reporters presented evidence that TBI staff were involved in discussions, a spokesperson said they were 'essentially in listening mode'.)
As a name, The Tony Blair Institute for Global Change – to give the think tank its full, inglorious title – has the feel of an overly broad satirical gesture. It's impossible to think of Blair, that is, without remembering the global change he instituted in fronting the invasion of Iraq, causing hundreds of thousands of deaths and ushering in an era of regional chaos whose consequences are still playing out.
Two TBI staff members reportedly participated in message groups and business calls on the project. 'One lengthy document on postwar Gaza, written by a TBI staff member, was shared within the group for consideration,' write the FT reporters. 'This included the idea of a 'Gaza Riviera' with artificial islands off the coast akin to those in Dubai, blockchain-based trade initiatives, a deep water port ... and low-tax 'special economic zones'.' The destruction of Gaza created, as the TBI document's authors put it, 'a once in a century opportunity to rebuild Gaza from first principles … as a secure, modern, prosperous society.'
The pitch deck laying out the plan contained such developments as 'The Elon Musk Smart Manufacturing Zone', in what is now Beit Hanoun in the north of Gaza; a highway encircling the strip named 'The MBS Ring'; something called 'The American Data Safe Haven', in what is now Rafah, and 'the Gaza Trump Riviera & Islands', described as 'world class resorts along the coastline and on small artificial islands similar to the Palm Islands in Dubai'.
The slides are bedecked with the logos of corporations such as Tesla, Amazon Web Services, Ikea, and the IHG hotel group – companies the developers hope will be attracted to the new, ethnically cleansed and business-friendly Gaza, though there is no indication that the companies had any awareness of the project. The plan, the developers project, would 'increase the value of Gaza to [around] $324bn from $0 today.'
Out of all this emerges the form of a barbarous future, uncannily aligned with the blood-soaked history of Europe and its colonies. Its association with a former British prime minister is almost too on the nose. (The fact that that former PM is Blair, a man whose energy has somehow become even more ghoulish since he left electoral politics, feels entirely appropriate.) What we are seeing here cannot even properly be called neocolonialism, so naked is the exploitation, so grim the equation of stolen land and private wealth. It is really just good old fashioned original-style colonialism.
'There is no document of civilisation,' as Walter Benjamin famously put it, 'that is not at the same time a document of barbarism.' (Benjamin, a German Jew, wrote these words in Vichy France as he himself was fleeing a genocide; they were among the last he ever wrote.) He was referring primarily to those cultural artefacts whose creation and ownership is so often inextricable from violence and oppression – the Pyramids of Giza, the Colosseum of Rome, the entire contents and institutional history of the British Museum.
It's tempting to say that these documents imagining the future of Gaza – the AI video posted to Trump's social media, and the pitch for lucrative development of the enclave – are not documents of civilisation at all, but of barbarism alone. But it's the duality that is precisely the point. A document of barbarism is also a document of civilisation.
It seems unlikely that the Elon Musk Smart Manufacturing Zone or the Gaza Trump Riviera and Islands will ever come to exist. Their construction would, in any case, surely necessitate an intensification of what is already a genocidal campaign against the Palestinian population. But the plan of which they are a part is itself a vital record of the endurance of the colonial imagination: a document of civilisation, written in blood.
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Irish Daily Mirror
an hour ago
- Irish Daily Mirror
Trump's deal with Europe sucks for Ireland and what the EU is importing
Europe is poised to embrace a surge of American vehicles and energy following Brussels securing an eleventh-hour trade agreement with Donald Trump, barely averting a transatlantic trade war. The pact, revealed on Sunday, means the European Union will now encounter a uniform 15 per cent levy on exports to the United States—cutting in half the 30 per cent rate previously threatened by the former president. In return, Mr Trump stated the EU had consented to eliminate tariffs completely on US goods entering the bloc. Nevertheless, in stark contrast to the EU's negotiations with the UK over Brexit, where complex matters such as implementing trade obstacles across the Irish Sea arose, this time Ireland's interests appear to have been relegated to the lower end of the bloc's priorities. How significant is Trump's agreement with Europe? Under the arrangement, the EU will purchase $750bn (£558bn) of energy from the United States and pledge an additional $600bn in investments into the world's largest economy. "We are agreeing that the tariff straight across for automobiles and everything else will be a tariff of 15pc," said Mr Trump, who has consistently advocated for Europe to purchase more American oil and gas. "We have the opening up of all the European countries, which were essentially closed. You were not exactly taking our autos, you weren't exactly taking our agriculture. Now it is open. "It is open for our companies to go in and do a good job." Europe is set to welcome a wave of American cars and energy after Brussels clinched a deal (Image: Getty) Mr Trump stated the agreement would provide Europeans with enhanced access to US pickup trucks and SUVs, with commerce between the two economies now poised to grow. "They [Europe] are going to make a lot of money with this," he said. "I think everybody is. And it is going to bring a lot of unity and friendship." Financial markets have been rattled in recent months by Mr Trump's fluctuating trade policies, with the tariff standoff generating uncertainty for global investors and governments. What does Trump hope to achieve with his Europe trade deal? Ms von der Leyen said the objective of the agreement was to "rebalance" trade flows between the two sides. "The starting point was an imbalance, a surplus on our side and a deficit on the US side, and we wanted to rebalance that," she said. "We wanted to do it in a way that trade goes on between the two of us, across the Atlantic. "The two biggest economies should have good trade flowing: rebalance, but enable trade on both sides, which means good jobs on both sides of the Atlantic, which means prosperity on both sides of the Atlantic. That was important to us." The agreement excludes steel and aluminium, which will still face higher tariffs of 50 per cent when exported to the US. British exports of the same materials face a reduced tariff of 25 per cent. Bad for Ireland: drugs firms left out of deal This exclusion could prove a major blow to Ireland, which depends heavily on its pharmaceutical exports. "We have to have them made in the US," Mr Trump declared. "We want them made in the US. Pharmaceuticals are very special. "We can't be in a position where we are relying on other countries. Europe is going to make pharmaceuticals, drugs and everything else for us too, a lot, but we are going to make our own." The Irish government has voiced concerns that looming US tariffs could deal a major blow to the country's pharmaceutical sector, which employs around 45,000 people. Ministers are particularly worried about the impact on multinational drug companies based in Ireland, following signals from Washington that the pharmaceutical industry may be the next target in a broader trade clampdown. While the EU's new trade agreement with Donald Trump excluded pharmaceuticals from immediate tariff hikes, the US has made clear that it still plans to address the sector in separate talks. Claus Vistesen, from Pantheon Macroeconomics, stated that the agreed 15 per cent tariff was less severe than many feared, and unlikely to alarm financial markets-but he warned it would still dent both the EU and US economies. "Trump is finding a middle ground," Mr Vistesen commented. "He is still shooting himself in the foot. US consumers will pay higher prices, and growth in trading partners will be lower than it would have otherwise been."
Irish Times
4 hours ago
- Irish Times
Letters to the Editor, July 28th: On Gaza and religion, the cost of sexual abuse redress, and Galway traffic
Sir, – As a Christian, I was brought up to have a deep respect for the religions of others, including the Jewish religion – which forms a significant part of my cultural inheritance. Seeing the photograph of a hunger-ravaged 1½-year-old boy in Gaza city on the front page of The Irish Times (July 23rd) and the photograph of a crowd of emaciated, starving, terrified, crying children holding up pots and basins and begging for food in Khan Yunis (World News, July 24th) forced me to immediately look up what the Jewish religion has to say about the moral requirement to provide food to those who are hungry; what I found confirmed what I already knew: 'If your enemy is hungry, give him bread to eat. If your enemy is thirsty, give him water to drink' (Proverbs 25:1). 'Give sustenance to the poor of the non-Jews along with the poor of Israel' (Gittin 61a). READ MORE 'While eating and drinking, one must feed the foreigner, the orphan, the widow, and other poor unfortunates' (Mishneh Torah, 6:18). Criticisms of the actions of Israel in Gaza are commonly branded as anti-Semitic by the Israeli authorities and those who support Israel, but is not the enforced starvation of the population of Gaza – including children, babies and pregnant women – not only a heinous crime against our common humanity, but also an action that is utterly forbidden by the Jewish religion. Jewish people and their religious leaders who are sickened by this need to raise their voices in protest. – Yours, etc, CHRIS FITZPATRICK, Terenure, Dublin 6. Sir, – While we are aware that there is a level of censorship within Israel which seems to have justified, perhaps hidden, and manipulated the reality of Gaza, the truth remains that Jewish people, in particular the diaspora in other countries around the world, are not unaware of the starvation, the degradation, and annihilation of the people of Gaza. In consideration of their own horrific past, where are the voices of the decent Jewish people around the world, particularly in America, who must stand up and be counted, to say enough is enough, and not in our name? Your strong voices must be heard. Shout your disgust. You know and witness with your own eyes. To use a famous quote: 'The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.' – Yours, etc, ANGELA CURRIE, Belfast, Northern Ireland. Sir, – While the perpetration of genocide by the Israeli government on Palestinians in Gaza is monstrous, other countries are complicit by their actions, and others by their inactions. It is horrifying that the US supports Israel with arms to bomb and shoot civilians, backs the 'Gaza Humanitarian Foundation', which fails, intentionally or unintentionally, to distribute enough water and food for life, and also seems to have given up on international law, humanitarian norms and the UN. However, it is Germany's actions that shock me the most. Just as post-Famine Ireland understands starvation, post-Holocaust Germany understands genocide, and its policy is supposed to be 'Never Again'. Yet, unbelievably, Germany is a significant arms supplier to Israel, and consistently refuses to back EU sanctions against that rogue state. Wann wird man je verstehen? – Yours, etc, CLAIRE WHEELER, Oaklands Park, Dublin 4. Womb with no view Sir, – The Irish Times has listed the 21 top earners among Irish chief executive officers. All men. (' Irish CEO pay soars as flight by our top plcs to Wall Street delivers the dollars ,' July 25th). Obviously no womb at the top. – Yours, etc, GEMMA McCROHAN, Ballinteer, Dublin 16. Deferring alcohol health warnings Sir, – The Government delaying until 2029 the placing of health warnings on alcoholic drinks is a shameful disgrace proving beyond any shadow of doubt the bias of this Government. In this case it shows a leaning more towards the profiteers than towards the general good of the Irish people. During the delay there will certainly be more new alcohol-related illnesses, tragedies, addictions and deaths. Some of these will be due directly to the labelling delay by the Government. When this happens, the Government must be accountable, and take a degree of responsibility and blame. – Yours, etc, ALBERT KERR, Bray, Co Wicklow. HSE and losing millions of euros Sir, – Martin Wall's report on the tens of millions of euro lost or written off by the HSE raises serious questions about accountability at management and board level ('Tens of millions in HSE money lost say auditors', July 26th). Surely the external auditors when faced with this level of losses would be likely to qualify the HSE's annual accounts? This in turn would have serious consequences for the HSE board, and senior management. Certainly, as a taxpayer it is difficult to understand why my taxes can be squandered without there being serious consequences for the decision makers. It is time for the Minister for Health, Jennifer Carroll MacNeill, to take a stronger line with the HSE board. – Yours, etc, MIKE CORMACK, Blackrock, Co Dublin. Sir, – The article concerning losses incurred by the HSE makes for very uncomfortable and frustrating reading. This is the organisation which consistently exceeds its budget and looks for further expenditure while at the same time presides over a litany of massive and irresponsible waste. This can only be described as incompetence of the highest order. It remains an unfillable money pit. When is the Government and in particular the Minister for Health going to demand and obtain radical change? Those departments which are underfunded should be asking the same questions. – Yours, etc, JOHN BURNETT, Carrigaline, Cork. Addressing cost of redress scheme Sir, – Stephen Collins writes that 'senior civil servants who have raised concerns about the potentially enormous cost to the State of a redress scheme for victims of sexual abuse in schools have performed an important service' (' A redress scheme for school abuse survivors could become a barrister-fattening exercise ,' July 25th). That concern might carry weight – if the Government hadn't spent the past week discussing how it will spend a large budget surplus. Collins overlooks another crucial point: that many institutions have not honoured their indemnity agreements with the Government – efforts to enforce these agreements could generate significant revenue to support redress. During a recent debate with me in Seanad Éireann, Minister for Education Helen McEntee left me in no doubt that enforcing indemnity agreements was an option she favoured. As a long-time advocate for redress for victims of abuse, it's important to point out that redress comes in many forms; it's not all about money. I've seen too many people broken and traumatised by their experiences while in institutions, schools and 'care' settings. Time has passed for many seeking to tell their story and obtain redress – many are now dead. Figures stating a redress scheme 'costing tens of billions of euro' are suspect. Spending a small percentage of our surplus would help reckon with a dark period of our history and the monies would go back into communities nationwide. While we cannot change the past, we can do the right thing in the present . – Yours, etc, SENATOR VICTOR BOYHAN, Leinster House, Dublin 2 . Galway traffic conundrum Sir, – I live in Galway, a city clogged and wheezing almost terminally, due to car traffic. Anthony Moran (Letters, June 24th) describes the city as it is, and will be, unless Murt Coleman's (Letters, July 23rd) ideas are taken on board and implemented. The traffic problem affects the city, county and region on a daily basis from accessing work and hospital appointments to getting to shops, businesses and schools. There are too many resulting negatives to list but one is that attracting people to the area is getting more and more difficult because of traffic and housing. Everybody, including politicians and officials, knows this because traffic affects everybody and everybody complains about it. Mr Moran may be right about the eventual fate of the Galway outer bypass but as to the 'deluded fantasy' of Light Rail – when Stephen Hawking wondered how Albert Einstein came up with such formidable scientific theories, one of the reasons he offered was that Einstein was 'undaunted by common sense'. And 'common sense' isn't cutting it here either; our city needs ambition and imagination and the ability to change for the better. Light Rail is a project that will serve the Galway area and region for the next 100 years or more, but we must begin the project now. – Yours, etc, SEAMUS McMANUS, Tuam Road, Galway. Abortion debate Sir, – Repeal offers safety to women, according to Brian Kennedy (Letters, July 23rd). What about safety for the baby? The safest place for any baby should be its mother's womb. – Yours, etc, MARIAN WHITE, Stillorgan, Co Dublin. Some jobs for the boys Sir, – Before any contract is signed or a single cent is spent (on the National Development Plan), may I suggest that Micheál Martin, Simon Harris, Paschal Donohoe and Jack Chambers take a flight aboard the government jet. Their first stop should be the southern end of Lough Derg, to view the Parteen Weir and Ardnacrusha. Built as part of the Shannon hydro-electric scheme, Ardnacrusha cost £5 million, almost one-fifth of the State's annual budget at the time. It became a symbol of bold, forward-thinking infrastructure. Next, they might fly offshore to view the Fastnet Rock lighthouse. Constructed over 120 years ago from more than 2,000 dovetailed granite blocks, it was completed for £90,000 and remains a triumph of engineering and endurance. On the return leg, they should fly over the Derrybrien wind farm, soon to be dismantled at great cost both financially and to the environment. Before landing they should get an aerial view of the still-unfinished National Children's Hospital. A project years behind schedule, many times over budget and built in a congested location. Perhaps after this aerial tour, they will reflect on the contrast: once, Ireland built transformative national infrastructure with limited resources. Today with abundant resources we seem unable to deliver major projects on time or within budget. Any government can spend money. It only deserves credit however when it ensures projects are delivered on time, on budget, and are built to provide facilities that will be beneficial to all for years to come. – Yours, etc, NOEL SHANAGHY, Co Waterford. Sir, – Apparently, €45 million has been allocated by the National Transport Authority for 6km of cycle lane from Dundrum to Dún Laoghaire, without a cost/benefit analysis. Is this the most expensive cycle lane ever built in Ireland? – Yours, etc, OLGA BARRY, Dún Laoghaire, Co Dublin. Not in for the long haul Sir, – In your article on Aer Lingus customer service (July 21st), one traveller noted that, as bad as the airline's customer service is, the warmth and professionalism of check-in desk staff has always encouraged him to choose the airline when travelling with young children. At the time of reading, I entirely agreed and would add that the care shown by cabin crew staff on transatlantic flights, in particular, is why I've been making the same choice for my family for the past seven years and for myself for much longer. But a flight from Dublin to Cleveland last week demonstrated that the airline's strategy to expand services to more US cities is damaging this reputation of a warm Irish welcome. Our recent experience of flying with Aer Lingus included a flight that was overbooked, an hour-long wait at check-in, and a frazzled clerk who initially failed to check in our five-year-old son and then assigned him to a seat on his own. The aircraft flying to certain US destinations – Cleveland, Indianapolis, perhaps others – are just not fit for long-haul travel. For seven hours, we shared cramped rows, a single, narrow aisle, and toilets only at the back of the aircraft with about 170 economy passengers. With this set-up, it took an age for the four cabin crew to navigate the aisle, fire meals, drinks, etc, at passengers, and I don't know where or if they took breaks. Their welcome was noticeably, and understandably, more tepid than usual. Dublin Airport might also want to have a word with its flagship airline. After the chaos of check-in, the rest of our journey through security and US preclearance was mercifully efficient, fast and pleasant. But this was lost on the American tourists seated near us who I overheard saying: 'Aer Lingus is trash. That is one of the most disorganised airports I've ever been in.' Maybe it's time for Aer Lingus to reassess and rein in some of its transatlantic ambitions. – Yours, etc, GRÁINNE McEVOY, South Bend, Indiana. Ireland's housing crisis Sir, – I totally agree with Michael Gilmartin's letter (July 26th) in saying that it is an impossibility to fix the housing crisis with a growing population and migration. Even to build the required housing units means we have to bring more workers here to build them. As he says, the constant obsession with jobs and economic growth cannot continue with finite resources; sooner or later a government is going to have to accept this. Unfortunately, it's hard to foresee a party brave enough to make this stand in an election, especially seeing the drubbing that the usual whipping boys, the Green Party, receive. – Yours, etc, ENDA SCANLON, Ennis, Co Clare.
The Irish Sun
4 hours ago
- The Irish Sun
Hilarious moment Donald Trump's golf caddie appears to subtly drop ball in prime spot before he arrives to take shot
THIS is the hilarious moment Donald Trump's golf caddy appears to drop his ball into a prime spot before he takes his shot. A video clip has emerged which shows two golf caddies alongside the US President as he drives a golf cart around Turnberry's Ailsa course, in Scotland. 6 Donald Trump is on a five-day visit to Scotland, expected to end on Tuesday Credit: Getty 6 Footage appeared to show a caddy drop the President's ball in a prime spot Credit: X / RoguePOTUSStaff 6 The US leader was enjoying a round of golf on Turnberry's Ailsa course Credit: X / RoguePOTUSStaff He donned a white USA baseball cap and was joined by Trump, 79, is seen being escorted down to the course, with a convoy of 20 other carts following close behind. The caddies go ahead of the US leaser and one appears to try and secretly place a golf ball on the ground. The President then gets out and claims to have made the shot himself. Read More Trump waves for cameras on the third green at the southeast end of the course before the party moves on. One person who watched the footage circulating on X wrote: "Caddy did that so smoothly. Can only imagine how many times he's done it." "I want to know how he finds caddies to do that for him," added another. This comes as the US President arrived aboard Air Force One at around 8.30pm on Friday for his five-day private visit to Bonnie Scotland. Most read in The Sun After waving to the crowds, he was welcomed by Scottish Secretary Ian Murray before being whisked to his luxury Turnberry resort 20 miles down the Ayrshire coast. Villagers waved as the convoy passed through nearby Kirkoswald and later arrived at the resort at around 9.30pm. And he wasted no time in taking to the green after being seen teeing off at the luxury resort. Several protests were planned, with opponents of Mr Trump gathering in both Edinburgh and Aberdeen earlier this week. The Stop Trump coalition has planned what it has described as being a "festival of resistance". Activists also shut down the Forth Road Bridge in South Queensferry as part of a huge protest ahead of Trump's visit. 6 Trump donned a white USA baseball cap Credit: Getty 6 The footage has circulated social media platform X Credit: Getty 6 The President was playing with his son Eric Credit: Getty Climate campaigners from Greenpeace confirmed that 10 activists abseiled from the massive 156m bridge to block an INEOS tanker. A large number of police and military personnel were seen searching the grounds at the golf resort to ensure Mr Trump's safety before he teed off. A high-profile security operation was in full swing with land, sea and air coverage from police and security services while a number of guests were checked over. Secret service agents with sniffer dogs checked bushes as snipers were positioned on a platform on the edge of the course and the roof of the hotel. Uniformed and plain clothes cops guarded all access points to the course, including roads, footpaths and the beach. Amid the search, a few golfers were also spotted at the course, enjoying an early-morning game. A number of onlookers had gathered at the entrance to Turnberry hoping to catch a glimpse of the game. But they were not let anywhere near. Police also had road closures in place, with limited access for locals and members of the media. Upon his arrival, Mr Trump told reporters: "There's no place like Turnberry. It's the best course in the world." As well as visiting Trump Turnberry, Mr Trump will later head to Aberdeenshire and visit his golf resort in Balmedie. During his stay, he will officially open his second course at Menie, named in honour of his late mother, Mary Anne MacLeod. His visit is expected to last until Tuesday, July 29. The President is also scheduled to meet Scottish First Minister John Swinney and Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer during his trip. After landing in Scotland, Mr Trump said the "invasion" of migrants is "killing" Europe and told the leaders to "get their act together". But when asked about illegal immigration, Mr Trump said a "horrible invasion" was taking place in Europe which needs to stop. He said: "On immigration, you better get your act together. 'You're not going to have Europe anymore, you've got to get your act together. 'As you know, last month we had nobody entering our country – nobody, [we] shut it down.' He added: 'You've got to stop this horrible invasion that's happening to Europe.' Mr Trump, who made a crackdown on illegal immigration a major policy in his second term at the White House, boasted: "Last month we had nobody entering our country." A massive £5million security operation has been rolled out to ensure his safety, with around 6,000 police officers drafted in from across the UK to support the efforts. We previously told how police and security services assessed fears that Trump could be assassinated during his visit to Scotland after he survived an attempt at a rally in Pennsylvania last year. David Threadgold, General Secretary of the Scottish Police Federation, said "a huge amount of threat assessment and intelligence gathering' took place ahead of the visit.
