1 of 4

Write now Article Tools

It is surely inconceivable that former British Prime Minister Tony Blair isn't acquainted with the old adage: "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me." So how are we to read Mr Blair's appointment (a Washington sponsored role) as senior plenipotentiary to the international diplomatic Middle East Quartet? Is the enticement legacy redemption, peace-accord naming rights or Churchillian biographies?

Tony Blair is desperately in search of an international make-over. But in the blood sport of Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking Blairism will need to be genetically rewired, politically repackaged and de-Americanized to be anywhere near palatable for Arab consumption - and then there are no sure-fire guarantees. Nobel Prize winning economist and American intellectual Milton Friedman (1912-2006) mused: "One man's opportunism is another man's statesmanship". So, while his leadership became mired and intrinsically opportunistic at home, Mr Blair sort solace from across the Atlantic, where Washington's elite lauded him as an international statesman; America's own English patriot their pet chow.

This persona was reinforced by Blair's unbridled support for the foreign policy mantra of President George W. Bush and the war in Iraq. Rose garden press conferences, war-theater flack jacket addresses allowed Bush to ventriloquize Blair whose repartee the former would never master. But it damned the eloquent Tony Blair as a policy patsy of the US administration, severely compromising his ability to be viewed as an honest broker to the plight of the Palestinians. So how does Tony Blair play the Quartet instead of the Quartet playing Tony Blair?

In an op-ed for the respected US think-tank the Washington Institute for Near East Policy the eminently qualified former Middle East peace envoy ambassador Dennis Ross emphasizes the importance of a broad-ranging mandate. Ambassador Ross is a twelve year veteran of Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking and it would bode well for Mr Blair to seek his counsel and digest his essay's. If his bosses (United Nations/Russian Federation/United States/EU) on the Quartet mandate Blair into a corner as they did with his predecessor James D. Wolfensohn, he may want to reconsider his options.

Wolfensohn the Australian born lawyer, and former president of the World Bank was well credentialed for the role, coordinating the highly sensitive Gaza disengagement by Israel, negotiating the fate of Israeli infrastructure and the return or redistribution of

• 1
• 2
• 3
• next page >>

Add your voice

Know something about Tony Blair's Middle East mission?
We want to hear your view. Write now!