Posted on 07/23/2007 11:30:56 AM PDT by Contentions
“If Tony Blair thinks we’re going to roll out a red carpet for him, he’s in for a surprise.”
This is what a senior Palestinian official in the office of Mahmoud Abbas told me when I asked him over the weekend about the visit to the region by the former British prime minister, now a special envoy of the Middle East Quartet.
“The president is not going to welcome him at the entrance to his office and we will send only one police car to accompany his motorcade when it enters Ramallah.”
The Palestinians have never liked Blair, largely because of his close alliance with George W. Bush, and his role in the Iraq war. That’s why it was hard this week to find one Palestinian who was pinning high hopes on Blair’s new mission as the top representative of the Quartet.
As far as most Palestinians and Arabs are concerned, Blair is nothing but a puppet in the hands of Bush. “He’s coming here to help Bush and the Jews,” another Palestinian official in Ramallah told me. “For us, Blair is not an honest broker because he’s biased in favor of Israel.
So if the Palestinians don’t trust Blair and don’t believe that he can make a contribution to the peace process, why are they still willing to deal with him?
(Excerpt) Read more at commentarymagazine.com ...
If anything bad happens to Tony Blair because of this spiteful neglect of his protection, I would hope that the world would come down very hard on Palestine. And that any American aid would be cut off immediately!
I am with you there, but I do not think even the Palis are stupid enough to allow anything to happen to Mr. Blair.
That said, if it does, Britain should make a house call...
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I believe Mohammed Dahlin, former Fatah head of security, is residing in Ramallah. Maybe Blair can look into the return of the stolen $53 million (of the last $60 million) in aid.
I just watched a really great historical account of the 1967 war last night. Makes me laugh at these delusional arabs even more. Talk about a butt-kicking and denial in the face of it.
Blair really should of taken another job. Nothing will be accomplished. The arabs expect the world to bow to them simply because of they believe they are entitled to it.
I’m sure he has both his own and Israeli security. That said, you will recall the murder of 2 (3?) American officials by a roadside bomb in Gaza a few years ago.
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