Blair Blows It. Hamas Rules!

Matzav's Carl blogs:

Israel Radio reports (3:00 pm) that in a press conference with the Arab media on Monday, Middle East quartet envoy Tony Blair said that the quartet would work with a 'Palestinian' unity government if Hamas would renounce violence. Despite being asked twice by reporters, Blair did not say that the terror group must recognize Israel's right to exist. Israel Radio did not mention the third condition - the reporters may not have asked

Is that a new development?

Well, on January 31, 2009, The Sunday London Times reported:

Hamas must be brought into peace process, says Tony Blair

Hamas must somehow be brought into the Middle East peace process because the policy of isolating Gaza in the quest for a settlement will not work, Tony Blair has told The Times...In an interview with Ginny Dougary in the Saturday Magazine, Mr Blair says that the strategy of “pushing Gaza aside” and trying to create a Palestinian state on the West Bank “was never going to work and will never work”. He hints in references to how peace was eventually achieved in Northern Ireland that the time may be approaching to talk to Hamas ... “My basic predisposition is that in a situation like this you talk to everybody.”

...Asked whether he had changed his view about talking to Hamas since the Palestinian elections, Mr Blair replies that his “basic predisposition is that in a situation like this you talk to everybody”.  However, he repeated the Quartet position that there can be no talks, official or unofficial, with Hamas until they renounce violence and recognise Israel. Mr Blair then says that there is a distinction between the difficulty of negotiating with Hamas as part of a peace process if they would not accept one of the states in the two-state solution, and “talking to Hamas as the de facto power in Gaza”.

He declines to answer whether he has talked to Hamas unofficially, although his staff later insists that he has not

What was the US response?

US disinclined to see Blair-Hamas talks

The United States showed little inclination Friday to see British ex-Prime Minister Tony Blair hold talks with Hamas as part of his mission as a peace envoy. State Department spokesman Tom Casey confirmed that representatives of the "Quartet," which named Blair its special envoy to the Middle East last week, would meet in London.

Did it help?  Naw.

And much earlier, in 2006 (!), Blair was, well, targeted:-

Hamas is urging Britain to back its proposal for a ceasefire of up to 10 years as a way of breaking the impasse over its refusal to recognise the state of Israel.

The most senior delegation from the Hamas government to visit Britain is in London this week to promote its offer to allow a period of "co-existence" with Israel as a way to move to an eventual settlement of the Middle East conflict. The two-man delegation, representing the Palestinian government, is also urging the British government to lift its ban on contact with Hamas.

"We would welcome talks with Tony Blair," said Ahmad Yousef, senior adviser to the Palestinian prime minister, Ismail Haniyeh, in an interview with the Guardian. "We would like to work with him and work with his government to help end the Israeli occupation. We're sending a message to the British government - we're offering a hudna [ceasefire] for 10 years in return for the end of occupation." Hamas wants European governments to accept its ceasefire plan in lieu of the Islamist group formally recognising Israel.

So, is this a long-term plan coming together?

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