Tony Blair almost killed by Israelis

Why, you poor misguided fool. There you were, thinking that Tony Blair's existence consisted entirely of smiling eerily, replacing genuine political debate with Clifford-esque marketeer rhetoric, and latching onto insanely flawed arguments for invading certain portions of the Middle East. Apparently there was much more to it than that.

Just look at this revelation, for example: the fact that Blair's private jet was almost shot down by Israeli fighter planes. Oooh - it's like a 24 season finale, isn't it? Except Blair's staff probably don't speak entirely in ominous hissed whispers with bad synth music swelling in the background.

Blair was en route to a conference in Bethelehem when his pilot - for some reason - neglected to contact the relevant air authorities. The result? A couple of scrambled fighter jets and a very tense standoff indeed. Well ... a tense standoff to those who were actually aware of what was happening. According to Ruti Winterstein, spokeswoman for the Israel branch of Tony PLC:

“They were unaware of it while they were on the plane. They didn’t hear about it until afterwards, from the media.”

God knows what Tone must have thought the two pursuing planes were for, then. Maybe he presumed he'd been allocated extra protection. Or maybe his existing security staff simply tutted and sneered 'those paparrazzi, eh? Just look at how determined they're getting.'

Either way ... he's got an interesting story for the dinner party circuit out of it.

Written by C J Davies on 23 May 2008 1:31 AM. Permalink