The Best Damn Idea I’ve Heard In Quite Some Time…
…involves the soon-to-be-unemployed Tony Blair:
The Bush administration is laying the groundwork for an announcement of Tony Blair as special Middle East envoy for Palestinian governance and economic issues after he steps down as Britain’s prime minister, following two months of behind-the-scenes negotiations, according to U.S. officials.
Blair would report to the so-called Quartet overseeing Middle East peace efforts–the United States, the United Nations, the European Union and Russia–and work on issues limited to the internal workings of a future Palestinian state. Political negotiations involving Palestinians, Israelis and the Arab states would be left to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, the officials said.
The idea, first proposed by Rice, was embraced by the Israeli government during talks between President Bush and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert this week. The Palestinians have yet to be approached, but U.S. officials believe they would welcome a Blair appointment.
Blair’s role would be an expanded version of the position held by former World Bank president James D. Wolfensohn, who resigned in May 2006 out of frustration at the deadlock over aid to the Palestinians following the January election of Hamas, U.S. officials said.
Bush and Olmert on Tuesday discussed the need to “lay the groundwork” for a Palestinian state that would build up Palestinian institutions and economic capacity so that when a Palestinian state is eventually created it will already be able to function as a “well-governed state,” State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said today.
Quite right…lay the groundwork, and make it crystal clear: choose the path of peace, and we will provide you with help in abundance – or continue the Hamas-led belligerence, and our aid will be strictly humanitarian and quite spare. The appointment of Blair would only serve to show the seriousness of the new overture.
I like it…a lot…
Wow. There is truth in the idea that peace in Palestine, peace among the Palestinians, and peace between the Palestinians and Israelis would bring some semblance of stability to the region. Let’s hope this is true – Blair is the sort of guy who could pull this off (although he would have to overcome some bias resulting from his support of the Iraq war).
Bonus: Blair and Bush achieve Palestinian success for which Jimmy Carter lusts in his heart.
Anti Bonus: Bush and Blair will remain the scapegoat for the hateful left who would rather point fingers than find solutions.
Dream on. The behavior in Gaza in the past two years proves what the Palis would do to a state. Like a toddler with a radio, they would smash it to pieces.
Perhaps Jesus Christ could bring an actual peace among the Palestinians; I’m not sure even He could manage a peace between the Paleos and the Zionist Entity. Oops; forgot that Jesus was a Jew. The Paleos would never trust Him; they’d call Him an agent of the Mossad…
Tony Blair has been a stalwart friend of America; it would do him a grave disservice to throw him into the maw of Paleo terrorist warfare. He will fail, not because of his limits, but because of Palestinian Arab intransigence.
I would expect Blair to fail because he has no credibility among the Arabs. Look at the people who are pushing this: Bush, Rice, Ohlmert. To Arab eyes, it is the coalition of the discredited. They have done more to destabilize the region than anyone since… well, you tell me. It would be as if Putin were sent in to resolve the issues we have with Mexico. Why should anyone pay attention to the he says?
If there is any country which could pull this off, it would be Saudi Arabia, which alone has the credibility and the leverage in the Arab world (and probably with Israel as well) to pull this off. The rise of Iran and the Shiites is as much a danger to the Saudis as to anyone else, and defusing the Palestinian situation would raise their stock in the region. Whether they step up to the plate is anyone’s guess — but in my view, sending Blair to do the job is a non-starter.