Word: blaire
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...limo, two journeys. politics throws up all sorts of questions: about competing needs and interests, about motives and results, even about the sanity of its practitioners. But Tony Blair's handover of the British premiership to Gordon Brown, a transition long anticipated and heavily choreographed, unexpectedly raised the one kind of question that never finds its way onto a parliamentary order paper: a metaphysical poser. How can power - granted by voters, defined by laws, enjoyed and exercised for 10 years - slip away so easily, almost as if it had never existed? The question hovered above a grizzled Prime Minister Blair...
...special representative of the Quartet of peacemakers, made up of the European Union, the United Nations, Russia and the U.S. But the Quartet's so-called "roadmap" for peace, based on a two-state solution, is now wastepaper. The Israelis are wary of outside mediators, which could leave Blair reduced to lecturing the Palestinians on good governance instead of negotiating with the two sides. This is made all the more difficult by the Quartet's refusal to engage with Islamic militants Hamas, democratically elected to power in January 2006 and now, through force of arms, the new landlords of Gaza...
...Hamas certainly doesn't think so. Salah Bardaweel, head of Hamas' parliamentary bloc, says he doubts that Blair will be able to "disconnect himself from America and its pro-Israeli policy." That doubt was shared by one senior Arab official at the recent Sharm al-Sheikh summit who said that Blair's appointment is seen around the Middle East as a favor bestowed by the White House in recognition of his loyalty as an ally...
...Blair's favor, however, are his megawatt charm and drive. Who else would leap at the chance to do diplomacy's most thankless job? It also helps that, so far, he has the trust of Bush and the Israelis. "We have nothing but respect for him," said Tzipi Livni, Israel's foreign minister...
...that respect could fade if the Israelis think that Blair is pushing them too far. Blair should take note of what befell his predecessor, James Wolfensohn, an American former president of the World Bank. Wolfensohn started out with everything going for him, but when he complained about some of Israel's more onerous policies inside the territories, and about the Quartet's decision to cut off aid to the Palestinians after Hamas' election victory, the White House shunned his advice as too pro-Palestinian and left him dangling. Eventually, he quit. If Blair starts to challenge Washington's pro-Israeli...