The First New Labour Government's Foreign Policy-Making Towards the Israeli-Palestinian Question: The Formative Years, 1997-1999

This article reconstructs the evolution of New Labour's foreign policy towards the Israeli-Palestinian question and the Middle East Peace Process. It argues that between 1997 and 1999 the approach became personalised when differences in substance and style emerged as Tony Blair (Prime Minister), and Robin Cook (Foreign Secretary), sought to define Britain's positions in a declining process. At the core of this divergence was Cook's preference for a greater Euro-centred multilateralist role in the trilateral negotiating template (bilateral Arab-Israeli talks overseen by the USA) and Blair's more pragmatic focus on Anglo-American relations. Yet the trigger for Blair's decision to control Middle East policy-Cook's Jerusalem visit during Britain's EU presidency-ran contrary to USA initiatives designed to augment peace efforts, and later formed a basis of contradiction between the criteria for humanitarian intervention in the Blair doctrine and his policy towards the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.