MIDEAST

Unity Is the Answer

Tony Blair, now international envoy to the Middle East, on how to stop the fighting in Gaza.

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  • Posted By: MBrando @ 01/09/2009 9:19:48 PM

    In 2002 Arab leaders in Beirut Lebanon adopted a Saudi peace plan offering Israel 'normal relations' in exchange for a return of Arab land (going back to 1967 borders), a Palestinian state with a capital in Jerusalem and a fair solution for Palestinian refugees. And what hapened next, Israel turned down the Arab leaders offer and continued it's war of agression against the people of Palestine. The radicalization of a movement like Hamas is the fruit of the Israeli policies in the region. I think Hamas is not the real obstacle to peace in the Mid-East, Hamas will accept any solution that will bring a durable peace to the Palestinain people. Hamas will yield to the will of the majority of Palestinians who are sick of wars and destructions. I think the real obstacle to peace is the Zionists who are not willing to give up land for peace, who want to impose by force their own agenda and will to the Palestinians.

    • Posted By: bjk2009 @ 01/10/2009 12:56:07 AM

      If Hamas is allegedly ready "to accept any peaceful solution for the good of the Palestinian people," why didn't they accept the U.N. ceasefire? Israel would have had no choice but to follow suit.
      Of course, in real life, Hamas never makes rational decisions. They'd rather go down in a blaze of suicidal fanaticism than recognize Israel's right to exist.

      • Posted By: froy1100 @ 10/26/2009 5:46:41 PM

        What are you talking about? Hamas declared a 10-year ceasefire just after winning the 2006 elections. Israel responded by pushing for International rejection, boycott and isolation (i.e. collective punishment of all Palestinians), followed by more killings and kidnapping of Palestinians, an attempted coup that split Gaza from the West Bank, and ultimately a criminal siege on the 1.5 million inhabitants of Gaza.

        In 2008 Hamas and Israel agreed on a new 6-month truce. Hamas stopped launching rockets, as agreed, but Israel kept on killing, kidnapping, wounding and harassing Gazans, while leaving the blockade fully in place, in flagrant breach of the truce agreements.

        What's the point for Hamas to keep on agreeing on truces, if Israel keeps ignoring them?

      • Posted By: MBrando @ 01/10/2009 1:57:15 AM

        bjk, you will be surprised to hear that Hamas is an israeli creation, in the 70's, Israel helped to create Hamas to counter attack the influence of Fatah and other secular movements in the occupied territories. Now to respond to your question why didn't they accept the cease fire?, as far as I know Israel too did not accept the cease fire. Your question is like who came first the chicken or the egg. In my opinion neither Israel nor Hamas want to appear as loosers. Up to date Israel did not achieve any of it's objectives and goals for which she started the war in the first place, and Hamas is fighting to death for it's very survival.

    • Posted By: bjk2009 @ 01/10/2009 12:51:05 AM

      That's because no country in its right mind would let itself be swamped with 3 million refugees AND give up its capital, all in exchange for the Arabs promising to behave like good children. Wake up already.

      • Posted By: froy1100 @ 01/10/2009 4:59:58 AM

        If that country hadn't expelled those refugees and stolen their lands, it wouldn't have to face that problem. Refugees anywhere in the world have an inalienable right to return home. Israel is not exempt from International Law.

  • Posted By: freecitizen @ 01/09/2009 11:56:01 PM

    "How do you propose to make a peace with these groups which are being used as frontline partisans by Iran and Syria to confront israel without these nations getting burned in the process.Iran and syria along with the other arab nations have all at one point or another prodded the Palestinuans into the firing line of Israel because it suited their purpose."

    The perpetual fiction of every oppressor is that the people resisting their ruthless tyranny are the mere puppets of a third sinister party.

    • Posted By: ross1972 @ 01/10/2009 12:50:53 AM

      Rree citizen your response was thought provoking however,it is not fiction that iran and Syria have been bankrolling hezballah for decades and more recently hamas.aside from money they have provided weapons and considerable training to not only these groups but also shia groups in Iraq.As i recall it was hezballah thet sparked that round of fighting in 2006 when those israeli soldiers were kidnapped and have yet to be seen by the ICRC..True fiction i suppose is to expect Iran and syria to do this for nothing in return.Shiite Iran now holds sway over not only its own territory but also wields enormous influence in Iraq,Syria and Lebanon.In the future,a nuclear capable iranian military will be able to send tank battalions and troops unhindered and unopposed right to the border of israel itself.Its fighters and bombers will fly from bases all across this wide region with no need to ask for airspace permission and they may very well be able to drive the Jewish people into the sea.A decade ago that would have been an Iranian mullahs pipe dream.Now it is coming true.

      • Posted By: froy1100 @ 10/26/2009 5:38:05 PM

        Bah, Israel and the US have been bankrolling "freedom fighting" groups to destabilize adversary nations for decades. But they have always watered an already sown field. Hamas and Hezbollah are resistance groups born out of Israel's oppression and cruelty. Take out these factors, and resistance will dissolve. Keep occupation going, and with or without Iran, resistance will continue.

      • Posted By: freecitizen @ 01/10/2009 2:23:19 AM

        Just as Jimmy Carter explains was the case in Gaza, israel was looking for a fight and did everything it could to push it's much weaker apponents into a fight Israel THOUGHT it could win with relative ease.. In 2006 weeks BEFORE Hessbolah captured the two Israelis. Israel had crossed the border into Lebanon and abducted something like 13 people from southern Lebanon. These incrursions and abductions were a common occurence, traditionally resoved with a prisoner exchange, but this time Israel decided to punish the entire Lebonese population with a massive bombing campaign.

        Why?

        The answer can be found in a paper written back in the 1990s by the same Pearl /Wolfawitz crowd that authored PNAC, Americas blueprint for world domination through preemptive war in the Middle East. The lesser known white paper was called "A Clean Break: Securing the Realm". This white paper advised BeBe Netanyahu, who had briefly ascended tp the Office of Israel's Primne Minister, on how to manipulate the American government into toppling Saddam Husein, and specified that taking on Hessbollah was a way to provoke a wider conplict that would bring the U.S. and Israel together in a final push to finally eliminate the governments of both Syria and Iran, replacing them presummably with complient dictatorships who would be tasked with the job of suppressing the apsiration of their own people.

        "Securing the Realm" actually specified that Saddam Hussein was to be replaced by a Hashimite King. It just goes to illustrate just how far removed these guys and their world view was from any basis in reality. They actulally believed these ends were achievable due to our massive military technical superiority. That illusion quickly evaporated on the streets of Baghdad, but the plan lives on..

  • Posted By: rrring99 @ 01/09/2009 10:04:38 PM

    Much of Arab world is biding its time until they acquire weapons suitable to destroy Israel. Any person that thinks that fundamentalist Sunnis or doctrine adhering Shiites will not attempt this attack are not only deluding themselves, but not integrating the words, promises and vows of these groups. While the intellectuals of the West sort out concepts like proportionality in regards to Israels response to rockets falling around their citizens, my logic is this...I always thought that if someone refused to recognize my existence...vowed to destroy me...shot rockets at me...and blew themselves up on my buses and in my markets...that person wants to fight me....Hamas is the ELECTED party in Gaza...Hamas represents Gaza...Therefore Hamas and Gaza wanted this fight...now...they have it

    • Posted By: froy1100 @ 10/26/2009 5:17:21 PM

      More nonsensical fear-mongering. The only country arming itself to the teeth uninterruptedly (with US-made weapons paid with US taxes) is Israel. This weapons are only used to destroy civilian infrastructure, bomb civilian neighborhoods and perform targeted assassinations. Such a democratic peace-loving nation.

  • Posted By: Getitout @ 01/17/2009 6:08:45 PM

    Hamas; A super power created by Israel, and made in Israel;
    I 'll leave them alone. Let Israel defeat itself from within, and from the same enemy she help creating.

  • Posted By: Hello... @ 01/16/2009 5:21:06 PM

    Sultan Ahmed, cut with the antics, with the hysteria. It's all a show. You people don't care about human life at all. It is easy to see thru your lies and antics. Sultan, wake up before it is too late --- you already have a foot in HELL. In time all those who come against Israel will be utterly destroyed --- no more war, no more Muslim religion, no more Muslim countries.

    • Posted By: BOFORCE @ 01/17/2009 9:01:26 AM

      That sounds like PROTOCOLS OF ELDERS OF ZION.

  • Posted By: runswithscissors @ 01/15/2009 10:10:59 PM

    Tony, Tony, Tony...

    Excuse me for thinking Tony had a leg up on Bush. Of course, he still might...I guess a leg up on stupid is...well...still in the realm of stupid.

    Tony puts all the onus on the Palestinians. "The long-term problem is the Palestinian unity."
    It is *A* problem, but the major problem is that Israel does not have the will to do what is right.

    The US could force Israel to do itself a favor, but the US is the dog wagged by the tail (Israel).

    Tony tells us amazingly:
    "In other words, the parties unifying have got to be agreeing. Unless it is clear that the Palestinian side is genuinely united???in other words, they agree that what they're trying to do is create their own state side-by-side with the Israeli state???it's very, very hard to get a viable negotiation. If you want a two-state solution, both sides have got to accept that there will be two states."

    Where the heck has Tony been? Hamas long ago accepted the idea of a two-state solution.

    Tony, how stupid can you be? You don't give us much Hope when you are The Envoy for the Quartet.

  • Posted By: Etiquette @ 01/15/2009 1:05:47 PM

    Tony Blair, a jack of trades and master of none. He is good for nothing at all. His own people kicked his ass to throw him out of Ten Downing Street. He has lost his credibility since he became Bush's pupy dog.

  • Posted By: Sultan Ahmed @ 01/15/2009 9:49:00 AM

    Mercyless killings of inncent peole,heartbreak,
    childern are screaming from windows,
    calling for help is heart break break situation..

    Some quarters describing it as noted below angle;
    ''suffering in Gaza was a dire humantarioan crisis,
    that has reached an unbearable point''

    Mr.Tony Blair,
    be heared the screaming,raising in the whole world,
    but you are are still setting the starting point,
    you can if you want to can,have no more to say you,
    because you are a great statsman,easily understand ,
    the language of indication.

    Arab league,
    at the end of the session anounced a resolution,
    urging parties involved in war ,for ceasfire,
    that's all,
    appeal, regarding the humantarian crisis,
    made by Iranian president is still underconsideration,
    what they would do,passed a resolution.

    But resolution is not enough,
    check the result of resolution,
    unanimously passed by the United nations Security Council,
    proved useless,the chief wondring country to country,
    for its implication..

    Mr. Blair,
    you are requested to please,
    to consider abstention,United States'abstention,
    signficance in nature,from the security council session,
    resolution has been proved fruitless,why/

  • Posted By: frankly @ 01/15/2009 4:48:04 AM

    There is no trust and hope for Tony ..he just waste the time and bring the same damm message....Shame ...if he was good political he would not attend blindly in Iraq occupation...his power of judgment has been tested once ....no need more.....Sir Tony Go to church and pray for GOD ...Politics is not room for your classics idea..

  • Posted By: BOFORCE @ 01/15/2009 1:40:43 AM

    Tony Blair is a NEOCON Pooodle and a LIAR......He is less credible than a street PIMP.

  • Posted By: Chaotician @ 01/14/2009 9:26:30 AM

    As one old enough to remember and know many Jews and Gentiles who went to Israel during those heady days of the Kibbutz and the Age of Aquarius; I am nostalgic for those happier days! Unfortunately, the Age of Aquarius led to the Fascism with the likes of George, Dick, Wolfowitz, et al. The Kibbutz is gone, revealing the Nazism of present day Israel! Those friends are largely back, disillusioned and sadden except a few who stayed and became the radicalized neo-Nazi Zionist cadre; interestingly, the most radical is a converted Hari Krishna member who you can see on the ramparts of the expanding Jewish settlements stealing land and deepening the hatred and the opposition to Jews worldwide. From the romantic nonsense of Sal Mineo and Paul Newman to the present day reality of the murderous Jew: twisting their wars, their pogroms, their genocide, their inhumanity into some mind-bending defense in the name of Jewish persecution can no longer be accepted, tolerated, and must be opposed without reservation! The 3000 year Lust for other peoples lands by the Zionists is cannot be allowed to continue!

  • Posted By: tdn0024 @ 01/14/2009 8:51:13 AM

    Britain started all this mess with Lord Balfour's pledge to the 10% of Jews in Palestine (1912) that the King supported creation of a Jewish nation in Palestine.

    Blair is lucky we Americans don't know our history. What did we tell King George 140 years prior? Buzz off! And that's exactly what the 90% Palestinian Muslims said in 1912, and have said until the present.

    What to do? For us Americans, how about offering the Israeli Jews US passports, and then doing the morally correct thing of supporting a single nation, democratic Palestine allowing refugees back in ...and accept that demographics today still mean a Muslim majority.

  • Posted By: lovejusticepeace @ 01/13/2009 5:39:21 AM

    Saudi Arabia - using Islam to rule by kingship is anti-Islamic ! That is why the kings of Saudi Arabia and Jordan are reviled by the muslims worldwide.
    Religion and The State requires a Dividing Wall.

  • Posted By: Impartial ordinary human @ 01/11/2009 1:17:08 PM

    You need a neutral man of honesty and integrity to bring about a just and lasting peace in the middle east, some like Bishop Tutu, Nelson Mendela, Jimmey Carter or Marti Ahtisaari. How can an renouned hypocrite like Blair, openly biased with hardly a trace of honesty bring about peace. The Islamic world would rather trust an honest Israeli or a decent Jew than a sleaze merchant like Blair.

  • Posted By: robbie hugh @ 01/11/2009 9:14:36 AM

    If America had successfully encouraged Israel, to relinquish all of the newly won Occupied Territories shortly after the Six Day War, I'll wager there would never have a 9/11 or other related atrocity of this kind.
    Blair has great skills which are used most carefully in manipulating the interests of whatever is best for those who control him and his fellow, unelected World power-brokers and elitists.
    Try Googling ICH or NWO or Bilderberg, adding the name Blair on each occasion and you will find that clever Blair is just the spoilt, rich puppet of those who create wars for their own benefits (which are, surprisingly) largely to create new,personal wealth for the Worlds major Bankers and arch-Zionists.
    I would love to be wrong, but how else can one explain the private, unjust world this exercise will uncover.
    Unless Blairs' Masters have a change of heart, mind and attitude, the world will continue muddling on with its wars and other needless disasters.
    Maybe the U.K's Gordon Brown will get to grips with the New World Order, in OUR interests. I hope so. Unacountable and invisible Rulers are out there and using the EU as a front for their diplomacy.
    All honest citizens deserve integrity from those who represent them. Israeli and AlLL Palestinians. Let us not divide society by seeking to annihilate those we are not comfortable with. If we accept Democracy, we mst practice it. The real rulers of this world are not acccountable for anything, or to anybody.
    Do your research and find your own conclusions to what is really going on......
    And when you have a good knowledge of Tony lair, you will also have acquired a good grasp of how democratic electorates throughout the world are being seriously and crminally cheated in the name of Democracy for the exclusive benefit of the world's Elite power-brokers and their very discreet friends.
    If Mr Blair reads this comment for himself, I will be very pleased to be corrected with verifiable evidence in contradiction of what I have said. It is time Mr Blair and his friends took responsibility for their historical parts in furthering the difficulties of Arab and Jew in the Middle East.
    Mr Blair now has the opportunity to atone and come clean by initiating proposals that will not find favour with zealous Zionists or hard-line Hamas devotees.
    He might propose a completely new clean up of the existing troublesome issues, and maybe shock everyone with astounding, unthinkable proposals that (once the shock-value has subsided),, might mean that Citizens of Israel and All of the Palestine,Diaspora (regardless of ethnic or political differences) might one day find acceptance of each other as neighbours without the fear and mistrust that permeates the situation today.. created by the Imperialistic aspiration of former invaders.

  • Posted By: Toni Kamau @ 01/11/2009 4:25:27 AM

    Such an inequality in power between the two sides. Who can expect from the Israelis with such a big advantage in muscle not to use it. Respect to the Palaestineans for their big heart s- What is Blair and the rest of the world doing in leveling this inequality. And also a question to the Arabs. When will they stop relying on Allah instead of standing up like men?

  • Posted By: freecitizen @ 01/11/2009 3:31:50 AM

    Stoic writes:

    "And Israel was spoiling for a fight - hah. All the stats and the verbal declarations made by Hamas over time, along with their covenant, shows the opposite.""

    Actually your submission shows that Hamas was also a beligerant and I don't think anybody disputes that. But from the day Hamas won a free election Israel set about toppling the Palestinians duely elected government by every means at their disposal. Israel had a choice to come to terms with the legitimate representatives of the palestinian people and they chose their usual course of action.

    Now I know most proponents Israel's cause say that the Palestinian peoiple are getting the punishment they deserve for electing "terrorists" to represent them. It has to be remembered that Israel herself elected a Prime Minister who was identified as a war criminal by Israel own supreme court. It's not surprising that with such leadership incremental starvation and the effective imprisonment of 1.4 million people was consideered Israel's "humane" alternatrive to outright genocide. The way i look at it the Israeliis and the Palestinians are pretty much miorror images of each other as mortal combatants often are in such circumstances. The only thing making israel more repugnent to me is the fact that Israel is using MY MONEY to do their killing.

  • Posted By: qqqqqjim @ 01/10/2009 10:00:55 PM

    So, Mr. Blair, what's your point? You have Israel, a country of seven million, causing all this trouble in the region. The Bush administration looked to Israel as the stabilizing force in the Middle East; however, it seems to me that Israel is the most destabilizing force there, and has been for some time. Go to Israel, Mr. Blair, and convince them to negotiate with Hamas, which has to happen sooner or later.

  • Posted By: ford4peace @ 01/10/2009 8:36:44 PM

    I blame religion. Everyone's god keeps telling them that they have a right to occupy this one patch of sand. When will human beings evolve into the intelligent species that we can become. We should all know by now that violence begats violence begats violence begats violence. We can all being doing so much more with our combined technologies to expand and improve human life. But I guess this fighting in the Middle East will go one forever and humans will remain just a primitive species.

  • Posted By: Getitout @ 01/10/2009 8:23:03 PM

    Mr. Blair you need to be going to the Israeli and tell them to show some kind of appreciation that you British put them in that land, and without you British Israel wouldn't had a land to call it Israel. And without the Palestinians that are still around Israel wouldn't be existing either. It looks to me that when God created man to his own image, man came around and created Israel. Than it is man doing to solve the Israeli problem. So Mr. Blair you need to have the British navy right accross Israel and warned them, if they don't go back, will come in and take you all back where you all came from. And then and only then that Israel will back off, unless they want the US to get in their conflict. I am not trying to make a joke out of it. I am dead serious, that's the only way Israel will back off. I think it is Israel that need to learn a lesson, not Hamas that are trying to rid their country from the occupier. Hamas is not trying to kick the Israeli completely from Israel, let's face it , if Israel has to leave their country, no country in Europe, or any where else will take them. It happens in WW2. Lots of them where turned back even from the US. If the Palestinians loses their land, every Arab country will be glad to take them, Europe, or the US. Nobody wants that to happen. How to stop the fighting in Gaza. Someone needs to give Israel a choice either to back off or suffer the consequences.

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