Blair Quits As Middle East Peace Envoy. What Hope For Israel-Palestine Now?

[sandyRoe]

http://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/tony-blair-quits-as-middle-east-envoy/ar-BBkiGTX

[joggerjayne]

Blair - Brown ... the greatest hospital ball ever?

We are completely f----d.

The economy is f----d.

The gold reserves are f----d.

Our integrity is f----d.

And our chances of winning another election are certainly f----d.

Gordon, over to you mate! I'm off to take up an "unpaid" advisory role, which may or may not come with some very, very "paid" spin-off speaking engagements.

See you in seven years, mate.

[ichkeria]

I am not a fan of Blair but accusing him of war crimes is just silly

[Bazile]

//Peace envoy ? What sort of peace has he achieved ..none. //

Love him or hate him - he never stood a chance of bringing 'peace' to the region .
Let's face it there is noone that is capable of pulling off that feat .
The Palestinian / Israel conflict is unsolvable , while both sides stick to their positions

[joggerjayne]

flawed?

Me?

[WesterRoss]

In the words of Charles Kennedy, making Blair the Middle East Envoy was like putting King Herod in charge of the maternity ward. I witnessed him saying this at a meeting in Gairloch.

[ichkeria]

Who put Charles Kennedy in charge of the vodka cabinet

[WesterRoss]

CK didn't drink vodka, it was whisky!!!!

[ichkeria]

Wrong tense surely ...

[jourdain2]

Yes, his career is really scattered with gold stars and popular plaudit isn't it. As for Israel/Palestine, I don't think there ever was hope. Both are fundamentalist states.

[ludwig]

Without Blair doing ...er.. whatever it was he did, things could get ugly out there. There could be war, terrorism, god knows what.

[Quizmonster]

Ever since his appointment …which is unpaid…by the Quartet, Mr Blair has routinely been referred to as “the Middle East Peace Envoy”, despite the fact that the only “peace” he was meant to be involved in is a ‘possible’ peace between the Israelis and Palestinians. Even more specifically, his remit is to encourage the build-up of the Palestinian economy.
He is in no way whatsoever responsible for what happens among the nearly two dozen other countries labelled as “the Middle East”. The fact that Saudi Arabia and others in coalition with them started bombing Yemen in April 2015 has nothing at all to do with Blair’s brief. The countries in that coalition with Saudi Arabia include Egypt, Kuwait, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Sudan and UAE. Each and every one – including Yemen itself - is a Middle East country but there was and is no reason to expect Blair to get involved in trying to “sort it out”.
Consequently, people who glibly say things such as, “the clue is in his title” as regards trouble anywhere in the Middle East and the fact that he appears to be doing nothing about it are simply wrong. He’s not SUPPOSED to be doing anything about it!
As regards the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, this has, in effect, been ongoing since biblical times and – clearly - NONE of those who have been negotiators between the enemies has EVER been able to create a lasting peace. It should be no surprise to any rational being, therefore, that Mr Blair has been no more successful than his predecessors.
How would YOU “build up an economy” in Gaza, for example, when it is routinely demolished by Israeli air-strikes in response to Hamas rockets?