Will Blair's Mid-East mission make a difference?

[genmirajborgza786]

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Tony Blair has arrived in Israel during a two-day tour of the Middle East as representative of the Quartet of Middle East negotiators.

The former UK prime minister’s mandate involves trying to strengthen Palestinian institutions but he cannot negotiate a peace deal.

Israel has welcomed Mr Blair's visit, but the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas has accused him of bias and warned him not to ignore them.

Mr Blair has already held discussions with Jordan’s foreign minister in Amman and is scheduled to meet Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in Jerusalem and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah.
http://newsforums.bbc.co.uk/nol/thre...20070724015834

[genmirajborgza786]

Blair continues Middle East visit
Tony Blair is to meet the Israeli and Palestinian leaders as he continues his first visit to the Middle East as the Quartet group's special envoy.
Mr Blair's spokesman said the former UK prime minister was on "listening mode" for the two-day trip.

His mandate from the Quartet of Middle East mediators is to work to strengthen Palestinian institutions, without trying to negotiate a peace deal.

The Quartet is made up of Russia, the UN, the EU and the United States.

Israel has welcomed Mr Blair's visit, but the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas has accused him of bias and said it must not be ignored.

'Critical point'

After a stop in Jordan on Monday, Mr Blair, who stepped down as prime minister in June, met Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni in Jerusalem.

She said this was "a critical point in time to create a turning point" in Middle East politics.

On Tuesday, Mr Blair goes to Ramallah in the West Bank to meet the Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Salam Fayyad.

He then returns to Israel for talks with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

Last week, Mr Blair said he hoped momentum could be regained in the stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace process.

But Mr Blair's mandate is limited to helping the Palestinians build up their institutions and boost their economy to prepare them for eventually running an independent state.

This is still a huge challenge, says the BBC's Katya Adler in Jerusalem.

Unemployment is high, living standards are low and corruption is widespread, says our correspondent.


HAVE YOUR SAY
If Tony Blair is an honest broker he will succeed
Pancha Chandra, Belgium


Mr Blair's mission is complicated by the division of the Palestinians into rival camps - one led by President Abbas in the West Bank; the other led by Hamas in Gaza.

The Quartet wants Mr Blair to carry on its policy of not talking to Hamas, but a leader for the group in Gaza said this would be a mistake.

"He must be fair," said Ismail Haniya.

"He should correct the mistakes he made as Britain's prime minister. We are ready for dialogue with Blair, and even the Quartet. All we want is justice for the Palestinian people."

Hamas was elected to government by the Palestinian people last year and later formed a government of national unity with Mr Abbas's Fatah faction. Mr Haniya was prime minister.

Mr Abbas sacked the Hamas-led government after Hamas took over the Gaza Strip in deadly fighting in June. Mr Abbas formed his own emergency government based in the West Bank.

Israel has since moved to bolster Mr Abbas by freeing some 250 Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails, releasing frozen Palestinian funds and establishing regular meetings between Mr Olmert and Mr Abbas.

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Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/h...st/6912875.stm

Published: 2007/07/24 00:45:49 GMT

© BBC MMVII

[genmirajborgza786]

Breaking point in the Middle East?
By Jeremy Bowen
BBC Middle East Editor




It was a momentous day for Palestinians.
By the evening, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas had taken the decision to dismiss the elected Hamas prime minister and to declare a state of emergency.

It was drastic action, but it cannot do much to touch the Hamas military wing in Gaza.

It is not clear how much influence even the elected Hamas politicians there have over events.

The fighting has left masked Hamas gunmen in control of most of the centres of power in Gaza.

Fatah's vaunted Preventive Security Force has been defeated, and its headquarters seized.

'Necessary man'

The Hamas fighters in Gaza won because they were better trained and better led than those of Fatah.

Many of the forces that Fatah might have expected to have on its side did not take part in the fight, some melted away.


Other local Fatah leaders worked out non-aggression pacts with Hamas.
The men who did fight were loyal, in the main, to Fatah's strongman in Gaza, Muhammad Dahlan - the man the US hoped would bring down Hamas.

But he was not there to lead them, and neither were other key Fatah figures.

Mr Dahlan is the prime enemy of Hamas. He is a key ally of the US, and also regarded by Israel as a necessary man.

The US has been working hard to help Mr Dahlan strengthen his forces.

He was absent, having medical treatment in Egypt, when a Hamas gunman kicked open the door of his office and put a bullet into his desk.

He has now returned to Ramallah, in the West Bank, where he is with Mr Abbas.

State of emergency

The man who shot up Mr Dahlan's office was filmed shouting: "This is the fate of traitors like the scumbag Muhammad Dahlan!"


A state of emergency is supposed to bring violence under control. The risk is that this one will make it worse.


Some Palestinians fear that the end of the unity government could cause the collapse of the Palestinian Authority and the other institutions they had hoped would become part of the apparatus of an independent state.


The dream so many Palestinians have of an independent state will die for another generation



The institutions, and the hopes behind them, have already taken a severe battering from Israel's military actions over the last seven years and, more recently, by the punishing financial sanctions imposed by Israel and other countries after Hamas won a free election at the beginning of last year.

The events of this week feel like a breaking point.


One Palestinian analyst contacted by the BBC said he feared the damage being done to Palestinian society by the current meltdown and the years of pressure that created it would be on a par with the destruction of Palestinian social structures in 1948, when Israel was created.

It is an event Arabs still refer to as "the catastrophe".

Policy failure

What has happened also shows the failure of the decision of the world's big powers to isolate Hamas.


The financial sanctions they imposed, which caused severe hardship and helped fuel the violence in Gaza by making people even more desperate, were designed to either force Hamas to recognise Israel or to push it out of power.

The policy has achieved neither objective.


The Saudis, who have given Mr Abbas vital backing, will not want to see the end of the unity government, since they worked hard to create it.


It was supposed to be the centrepiece of a new activist Saudi foreign policy.


The Hamas Prime Minister, Ismail Haniya, will want to maintain a working relationship with Mr Abbas. Without it, Hamas will be even more isolated.


So Saudi Arabia, and Egypt, will try to force Hamas and Fatah to negotiate.



If they cannot, and their future is to spill each other's blood over rival statelets - Gaza and the West Bank - under the eye of the occupying power, Israel, then they have no chance of a wider Middle East peace deal.

The military leaders of Hamas do not believe one is possible anyway.


And that would mean that the dream so many Palestinians have of an independent state will die for another generation.


Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/h...st/6755579.stm

Published: 2007/06/15 08:56:00 GMT

© BBC MMVII

[Ababeel]

For Blair as special envoy for Middle East, just one sentence:
Qatil bhi wahi, Munsif bhi wahi

[KashifAsrar]

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Kal Munsif nay yeh chupkay say, kaan'on main kaha aik mujrim kay
Chal mujh ko bata main jurm tera kis ahl-e-wafa k naam likhon?

Big Lair is on a BUSH-MISSION again, with new middle east birth pangs still on the horizon.
Saalay Besharm Chor
Kashif