Gaza: time to fire Middle East piss process envoy Blair?

[emad]

His consultancy fees for being the 'Quartet' Middle East man in Tel Aviv are notoriously shrouded in secrecy, so it's hard to tell just how much his personal rake-off has been amid the current Gaza fiasco.

But by any standard of diplomacy Blair's role gone beyond a farce.

Time to hang up his boots and turn to his true alma mater-to-be, the George W Bush Presidential Libary & Museum?

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Blair caught up in the crossfire as Gaza burns

THE CURRENT conflict in the Gaza Strip has placed Tony Blair in a very difficult position as Middle East peacemaker. With crucial Israeli elections taking place on 10 February, our former Prime Minister must take care not to make comments which might be seen as partisan, especially with all parties supporting the bombing of Hamas.

Another complication for Blair is that the man who gave him the job, George W Bush, leaves office in three weeks' time and the incoming President Barack Obama has yet to say where he stands on this issue.

Small wonder then that Tony, whose most lasting achievement was the Good Friday agreement on Northern Ireland in 1998, has been keeping himself to himself.

The former PM spends a week out of every month in a wing he occupies in the American Colony Hotel in Jerusalem, his thankless task being to promote peace in an angry region. In an end-of-year interview with the local Haaretz newspaper a few days before the bombing started, Blair made comments which might be thought quite controversial. While insisting he cannot interfere in local politics, he indicated he might still be under the hawkish influence of George W. Bush.

http://londonersdiary.standard.co.uk/



"he might still be under the hawkish influence of George W. Bush"

AND no prizes for guessing under what influence puppetmaster Bush might still be...

[LeftishBrit]

1. I have to agree that he is a most unsuitable choice for such a post.

[Matilda]

2. He certainly hassn't achieved anything to date.

To be fair, though, any peace-broker in the ME will have his/her hands tied as long as Israel has
the unquestioning backing of the United States.

As long as the money, the weapons and the support continue to flow to Israel from whichever president
is currently in power, Israel is not going to take advice or counsel from anybody. The only person
who could ever influence the thinking of Israel's politicians is a genuinely even-handed U.S.
president who is prepared to pull the plug on Israel if necessary.