A Vital Debate But With Whom?

And who wrote this?

There will be no peace in our world without an understanding of the place of religion within it...

...there are those that insisted that as the Arab revolution knocked over long-established regimes and created movements for democracy, so those societies' religiosity would take second place to the new politics. It hasn't happened. Religion is fundamental to those societies and if anything, in the foreseeable future, will become more so.

And do we seriously think the issue of Jerusalem can be resolved without at least some discussion of its religious significance to all three Abrahamic faiths?

Tony Blair.

And what country fits his bill?

Think:-

Those of us inspired by our faith must have the right to speak out on issues that concern us and in the name of our beliefs...this should lead to a vital debate about the nature of democracy, a debate all the more critical as we witness the Arab revolutions. I find it hard to define democracy by reference to one faith. The essence of democracy is that it is pluralistic. It is inherently secular, even if rooted in cultures that are profoundly religious. This is where democracy-friendly religion really means something very important in the way society is governed. It is about free media; freedom of expression; and about freedom of religion.

Does that outline fit any other country in the Middle East other than Israel?

With whom can Israel debate?

Blair has found the problem, pointed to a solution but nothing can be resolved.

In this situation, should Israel, faced with Temple denial, with identity theft, et al., not to talk about incitement and hostility and ongoing terror, weaken its claims to its national ethos, to its security, to its economic strength?

^

Have We A "Between-The-Sheets" Affair? Milky Blair?

That's what's claimed.

Story here:

Tony Blair’s intriguing friendship with one of the richest divorcees in Israel... and how Cherie was warned of ‘a sexy conspiracy’

...Ofra Strauss, 51, who divorced her second husband last year, is the head of a £1.3billion food company whose high prices triggered the biggest social protests in Israel’s history.  She has been seen so often in Mr Blair’s company that the Israeli press has even speculated openly that they are having an affair.

It is an allegation Ms Strauss’s spokesman yesterday angrily denied, while Mr Blair too is adamant there is ‘nothing improper’ in the pair’s relationship.

...The apparent closeness between Ms Strauss and Mr Blair is such that earlier this year a columnist for Maariv, a highly respected daily Hebrew newspaper, went so far as to write an ‘open letter’ to Mr Blair’s wife Cherie, suggesting she might like to clarify the nature of the relationship.

‘For the information of Mrs Blair,’ the article began. ‘Very, very quietly this weekend, the official car allocated to Tony Blair by the Quartet glided through the gates of Ofra’s house, which is protected by tight security measures… all kinds of bad people have called me trying to suggest this visit had the character of a sexy conspiracy, so I’m handing the matter over to you to handle personally.’

...Ms Strauss’s spokesman, Rani Rahav, said it was ‘ridiculous’ for anyone to suggest there was any romantic element to her dealings with Mr Blair. ‘There was never any skin between them, never. I have never been asked such an ugly question before.’

...In Israel, being friends with Ms Strauss is seen as politically controversial.

Oh well, chalk that up to money, if you ask me, not sex appeal.


(k/t=CR)
^

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?

^

So, Tony Blair Is Venal

Wow. So this is the moral fellow to help negotiate a Mideast peace?

Tony Blair waged an extraordinary two-year battle to keep secret a lucrative deal with a multinational oil giant which has extensive interests in Iraq.

The former Prime Minister tried to keep the public in the dark over his dealings with South Korean oil firm UI Energy Corporation.

Mr Blair - who has made at least £20million since leaving Downing Street in June 2007 - also went to great efforts to keep hidden a £1million deal advising the ruling royal family in Iraq's neighbour Kuwait.

In an unprecedented move, he persuaded the committee which vets the jobs of former ministers to keep details of both deals from the public for 20 months, claiming it was commercially sensitive. The deals emerged yesterday when the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments finally lost patience with Mr Blair and decided to ignore his objections and publish the details.

Read more.

And What Happened To Tony Blair Today?

Here.

Pics via Sky News:

Tony Blair: Going Over the Top

Tony Blair is going hyper:-

Mideast talks critical, Blair says; Israeli-Palestinian conflict key to stability in entire region

It is "desperately urgent" to put the Middle East peace process back on the rails by the end of this year, says former British prime minister Tony Blair.

And, says Blair, Mideast envoy for the countries trying to mediate an Israeli-Palestinian settlement, if the window of opportunity is closed, effects of the decades-old struggle will ripple outward destructively to the rest of the world.

Cataclysmic, no?

..."If people end up thinking it's hopeless, the consequences will affect the security of the entire world," Blair said yesterday in an interview with the Star, at the Multi-Faith Centre at the University of Toronto.

"I don't think anyone should doubt the fragility of that region, and the wider region of Afghanistan, Pakistan and North Africa.

"This is a global challenge we have to take on – and of which the Israel-Palestine question is a major part."

Wait, there, Tony.

Who makes it a global affair? Who threatens oil crisis? Who attacks the Twin Towers to get at the Big Satan (USA) and the Little Satan (Israel)?

Is it Israel's fault or are the Muslims exploiting a local dispute, of which there are examples of dozens around the globe?

Are you, too, falling for the bluster?

..."My conversations with Netanyahu over a long period of time (show) that if the context for Palestinian statehood is right, and the state would be a secure one, he would agree," Blair said.

...Blair has maintained that Gaza must be included in any peace settlement, and the lot of its people must be improved.

He has also called for talks with Hamas, if it is willing to accept the existence of Israel as part of a two-state solution.

But he said "the West Bank is five-sixths of the territory, and two-thirds of the population. If we make progress in the West Bank, and there are some (better) prospects for Gaza, the momentum for peace will be strong."

Although territory is a large part of the struggle between Israelis and Palestinians, Blair said, "religious faith is the most important question that will determine security in that part of the world, and in (our) part of the world in the 21st century."

If religious faith is most important, don't we go back to the Bible?

I feel more comfortable now, I think.

Tony Blair Visits An Arab Settlement

Tony Blair visited an Arab settlement in Judea:

Quartet Envoy Tony Blair during a visit to a West Bank village on Thursday [said] “The reason for coming here today is to draw attention to the fact that without a new and different system applying in Area C, it is very hard for Palestinians to enjoy a standard of living so that they can enjoy and develop their land as they should be able to develop it,” said Blair during a visit to the village of At-Tuwani, in the hills south of the city of Hebron

.

I await his visit to Shiloh.

Blair wouldn't behave differently, would he? Would he discriminate and ignore revenant Jews?

Tony Blair's Figured It Out - Finally

Blair no longer believes that "land for peace," in and of itself, is sufficient. He made this point emphatically in a speech he delivered a few weeks ago at the Saban Forum in Jerusalem. What is no less important, in his view, is the character of the Palestinian state. He wants to see a state with stable institutions that are properly run, particularly from the security point of view. He constantly reiterates that in talks with senior PA officials, and baldly warns them: "There won't be a Palestinian state unless it is coherently governed and run, and anyone who tells you different is misleading you."

Source

Yes, it really is that simple.

Is This A Front for Tony Blair?

Below is the top half of a political advertisement that appeared in today's Haaretz (the bottom half appears at the end of this blog post).



The subject is an attempt by a group, supposedly students and young people, which is seeking the division of Jerusalem. It's main slogan reads:

Olmert, There Must be a Compromise in Jerusalem!

But what interests me is that, if you will please look carefully at the left upper section, you will see that the advert was prepared by "McCann PRess".

Funny, that. Who/What is McCann PRess? Stay with me.

Well,

McCann PRess Weber Shandwick is one of the leading communications agenices in Israel. The company provides media and public relations consultancy to businesses and organisations, with a strong specialism in crisis management.

The highly-experienced team, including the deputy spokesman for the Israeli Ministry of Justice, has worked with leading companies in Israel and beyond. McCann PRess has expertise in managing crises and issues in the media, including for organisations in the legal, public, economic, criminal, and work relations sectors.

The office offers a full range of services, including media training, media messaging, and press releases. For clients visiting Israel, the team at McCann Press can act as spokespeople, co-ordinate interviews with officials, arrange photo calls, and work with the media teams of the Prime Minister, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, and the Chairman of the Opposition to publicise the visit.

Current clients include the Atomic Energy Commission, the Four Seasons hotel chain, Markstone Capital Group, Excellence Nessuah Investment House, Yellow Pages, Manpower, NeoPharm, Agrexco, 888.com and the Jerusalem Development Authority.

Contacts

McCann PRess Weber Shandwick
Raul Walenberg st. 2a
Tel-Aviv
Israel
T: 972 3 7686444

Amir Dan
Joint managing director
T: 972 3 7686444

Einat Oren
Joint managing director
T: 972 3 7686444

Hmm. "and the Chairman of the Opposition". Neat, that.

But I'm interested in something more.

According to this,

...Weber Shandwick specialises in media, business and government; providing marketing communications, media and web relations, public affairs, and issues management, and offers corporate communications counselling services. It has 81 offices in 39 markets. Chaired by Jack Leslie, its global CEO is Harris Diamond. Its president is Andy Polansky. UK CEO Colin Byrne was hired by Peter Mandelson to advise UK Prime Minister Tony Blair during the 1997 and 2001 general elections.

In 2006, Weber Shandwick was named Large PR Firm of the Year (PR News U.S.), European Consultancy of the Year (The Holmes Report) and Network of the Year (Asia Pacific PR Awards). The firm also won the United Nations Grand Award for outstanding achievement in public relations. In the Holmes Report's Best Agency to Work For study, Weber Shandwick scored the highest marks of any of the large, publicly-traded, full-service agencies. In 2007, Weber Shandwick received the highest client-satisfaction honors in the 2007 Agency Excellence Survey by PRWeek U.S. Weber Shandwick's clients include many Global Fortune 500 companies.

So, it's a big firm (which means that someone is coughing up a lot of money) and it has links to...EU Special Middle Easy Envoy, Tony Blair.

If Ron Weber is the Weber in this firm's name, well I recall him from maybe 20 years ago. He was an American Habonim member, lefty, travelled with Yossi Beilin, Shimon Peres, then got rich and branched out.

But why would students and young people go to this PR firm? Have they the money, or the contacts? Or..

Is it Tony Blair somehow pushing the division of Jerusalem?

==========================================



And by the way, if you try visiting the website included there at the bottom of the advert, here, you get nowhere but to a dead-end. Very odd, that.

UPDATE

Oops. Here's their site. And it strenghtens my case. It's a poor unimpressive site. As if they have no money. But they did have tens of thousands of NIS for the advert and to employ an expensive PR firm. So, is this a pro bono thing by McCann PRess? If so, why? Do they identify politically with Jerusalem's redivision or are they sucking up to Blair?

Another Perfidious Albion Decision?

Blair hints UK may deal with Hamas

The UK has indicated it could be prepared to do business with the Islamic group Hamas, in comments that underlined the growing difference in approach between Europe and the US on how best to pursue peace in the Middle East.

Speaking in London on Thursday ahead of a meeting with Mahmoud Abbas, Palestinian Authority president, Tony Blair, British prime minister, welcomed the agreement earlier this month to form a Palestinian government of national unity. He even anticipated working with officials from Hamas, which agreed during talks in Mecca to set up the government with Mr Abbas's Fatah party.

"It's far easier to deal with the situation in Palestine if there is a national unity government," he said. "I hope we can make progress, including even with the more sensible elements of Hamas."