Netanyahu diary reveals close contact with Tony Blair and US senators

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's 2024 diary has revealed regular close contact with Republican senators in the US and former British prime minister Tony Blair. 

The diary, which was published this week at the request of the non-profit group Hatzlaha, showed that Netanyahu held seven meetings and nine phone calls with Republican Senator Lindsay Graham.

The diary, much of which was redacted on national security grounds, also reveals that Blair and Netanyahu met seven times.

On 29 October 2024, the Israeli prime minister spoke with UAE President Mohammed Bin Zayed, a call that was unreported at the time. 

The discussions with Graham came at a time of heightened tension between Israel and the administration of then-US President Joe Biden over Israel's genocide in Gaza.

According to Haaretz, while the exact conversations were not made public, they took place when the Republican senator was trying to procure further weaponry for Israel and undermine Netanyahu's arrest warrant at the International Criminal Court (ICC).

On 8 May, the day after a phone call with Netanyahu, Graham participated in a Senate appropriations committee hearing on delays in arms delivery.

During the hearing, Graham criticised the government's decision to suspend some sales to Israel over a then-proposed invasion of Rafah, in southern Gaza.

"If we stop weapons necessary to destroy the enemies of the state of Israel at a time of great peril, we will pay a price," Graham said.

"This is obscene. It is absurd. Give Israel what they need to fight the war they can't afford to lose."

That same month, he also pushed for the US to impose sanctions on the ICC over Netanyahu's arrest warrant, branding it "outrageous conduct against the state of Israel".

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He told Congress that the court was "biased and corrupt regarding Israel".

Though Biden provided financial and diplomatic support for Israel during its assault on Gaza, tensions reportedly arose over the extent of the operation, which has been classified as genocide by a range of rights groups and law experts.

The coming to power of President Donald Trump in November 2024 saw Netanyahu attempt to bolster relations with the US and ensure a blank cheque for Israel's actions in Gaza and the other occupied territories.

Last week, the UN Security Council approved Security Council Resolution 2803, which backs the creation of an international stabilisation force and places Trump in supreme control of Gaza.

It also names his "board of peace" as the entity that will oversee the implementation of the plan for a period of two years. Blair's involvement in this has been widely touted.

Ralph Wilde, a leading international law academic and practitioner, told Middle East Eye that the resolution attempts to codify "trusteeship" over Gaza, a colonial arrangement that breaches the Palestinians' right to self-determination.