Tony Blair: Negotiations Must Precede Palestinian Statehood Bid

On Thursday, Palestinians in the West Bank started a campaign to win international support for their request to be recognized as an independent state by the United Nations. Palestinian diplomats are expected to file for statehood during the upcoming meeting of the U.N.'s General Assembly, held later this month in New York.

Former British prime minister Tony Blair discussed these and other developments in the Middle East in a recent interview with Reuters. Blair said that although he recognizes the frustrations of the Palestinians -- "We are all frustrated," he said -- the only way to get a Palestinian state is "through a process of negotiation."

Blair is currently the head envoy for the Middle East Quartet -- the supranational group consisting of Europe, the United States, Russia and the United Nations. The former PM was in Israel earlier this week, where he reportedly announced that he was working to bring Palestinians and Israelis back to the negotiating table. "Between now and whatever happens at the U.N., we have to work very hard and put a negotiated process back on track," Blair told Reuters. "There is no other way." The former PM argued that unilateral declarations are understandable, but will not deliver a Palestinian state.

Question remains how much Blair will be able to achieve this close to the U.N.'s scheduled vote, as Palestinians are expected to present their case to the General Assembly on September 20th. Moreover, the former British PM has walked a controversial path as the Quartet's envoy. Blair failed to call for a ceasefire during Israel's 2008 attack on Gaza, was accused of using his position for personal financial gain, and failed to lead negotiations on core issues of the conflict.

In the Reuters interview, Blair also discusses the British rapprochement with ousted Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi. Blair said he didn't regret Britain's openness toward Libya, as it was important at the time to support Gaddafi's renouncement of Libya's chemical weapons stockpile and support for terrorism. "The external policy of Libya changed ... The trouble was in the end that they weren't prepared to reform internally," Blair said.

Watch Reuters' interview with Tony Blair here:

Comments

[obinna000]

08:46 AM on 09/12/2011

O Gashly!!! You do sir?

[kodimirpal]

07:41 AM on 09/12/2011

So what is the final settlement? Such a settlement must...give the Palestinian people a sovereign, uncontested, independent state of their own. This is a matter of justice and practicality.

Territorial integrity and contiguity. Any further dissection of Palestinian territory would make it politically and economically impossible to maintain a state. There can be no civilian pockets under Israeli rule on Palestinian land.

A sovereign capital in Jerusalem. East Jerusalem is Palestine’s historical, spiritual and commercial heart. To exclude it from a Palestinian state is unthinkable...

Justice and fairness for refugees. As a matter of principle, the Palestinians right to return or be compensated for their lost homes and land is nonnegotiable...Israel must acknowledge the suffering and hardship Palestinian refugees have faced as a result of their eviction from their homeland, and must assist in their rehabilitation and reabsorption.

It was our nationalism...which drew the country into an occupation and settlement of the West Bank...None of the leaders of the Labor movement believed that the Palestinians deserved the same right [as Jews] because none of them believed in universal rights.

Pretending, like [Arthur] Hertzberg and others do, that the Occupation and the colonial situation created in the last thirty years was merely the product of the Arab refusal to recognize Israel, is no more than looking for an alibi and falsifying history.

[MilesToGo]

03:48 AM on 09/13/2011

Good post, as usual...thanks. The need to falsify history and contrive strained narratives bereft of facts has been going on since the founding of Israel, but especially since 1967. We can accept the legitimacy of Israel, obviously. But not there constant and disproportionate military responses.

[Want2knowY]

02:52 PM on 09/16/2011

"Justice and Fairness". "Israel must....."

And, in return for the things you state Palestinians are entitled to, what will Israel recieve? Recogniton by Palestinians as a Jewish state? The Jewish Quarter of the Old City and the Western Wall? The Jewish neighborhoods surrounding Jersualem? These questions, too, will need to be fully addressed if we are serious about peace.

[vrede]

02:47 AM on 09/12/2011

None of this would be happening if all religions would respect the one sentence that is in every religious book. God created all.. that includes everyone. This is a territory fight over who's religion is right or better then the others and has the right to the same spot that they all see as their holy place. Palestinians have a right to live their as well as the jews and christians. Any religion killing others in the name of God isn't truly following their own belief.

Personally I think all religions are too busy worrying about the after life while destroying the now.

[Brewerstroupe]

05:34 AM on 09/12/2011

Nothing to do with religion. Colonialism is the imposition of rule over and the theft of resources, from an indigenous population.
Most colonialism is now done by stealth, under the subterfuge of "Globalisation".

This one is even more risible. "We used to live here" - 2,000 years ago - therefore we own the place, you gotta move. Spoken by those who, in 2,000 years, have not integrated into the culture that has hosted them.

Until someone comes up with a credible rebuttal of Shlomo Sand's thesis:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1EmvANgw9Mk

.....I remain unconvinced that the Israel Project is anything less than an attempt to leverage advantage off a religious myth.

I welcome serious discussion on this topic. Trolls need not apply

[kodimirpal]

07:11 AM on 09/12/2011

Excellent posting. The so called direct negotiation is not going to work. These are all just absolute EYEWASH

Diplomacy has failed because of the dishonest Western brokers.

Where were the Jews before the birth of Moses? Who were the inhabitants of Palestine before Moses left Egypt.

Even if for argument sake we accept your wrong history, and apply this logic to the USA, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore and very many other coutries we will create a huge topsy tuvy and continuous wars to reoccupy the lands.

Does you Bible teach the following? Teach the Jews to dispossess, deprive Palestinian birthright and deny basic human rights and freedoms.

Millions of Palestinians daily endure a rare fate.

Just the simple act of surviving through the day under occupation requires enormous resilience in the face of a superior war machine, supported by the world's single superpower.

Israel can slaughter the civilian population in Gaza. But the Palestinian children fighting back with stones are extremists and terrorists.

The Zionist view is that people can explode bombs for promoting the a racist theocracy like Israel but not in Palestine, not to achieve the liberation of their home land. The world thrives on hypocrisy and double standard, and the standard is fixed by Zionists who rule the world by proxy.

[vrede]

02:37 PM on 09/12/2011

This was my point ..religion and rights. why can't everybody live there no matter what your history or belief. It is this fight over who has more rights or who was first that will never be resolved. Move on and free the Palestinians. If they want their own state then let them.

[kodimirpal]

06:50 AM on 09/12/2011

who has done more killings, more dispossession, more land grabbing, more discrimination, more injustice, more persecution , creating more refugess in Palestine? You sound fair but you have shown indifference.

[vrede]

02:28 PM on 09/12/2011

Indifference was not my meaning. I completely agree with you and am shamed by America's support of Israel. I was just trying to point out a religious view or a cause of all this. But that being said Israel leaders are clearly racist murderers.

[simcha]

12:53 AM on 09/13/2011

You say that you are a teacher. Where? In a Madrassah?

[kodimirpal]

01:18 AM on 09/12/2011

As Israel was the state for Jews wherever they lived and not for all the people who lived within its borders (so to speak, seeing that Israel has never actually declared its borders), the laws would have to be framed accordingly.

The Nationality Law automatically conferred Israeli citizenship only on Jews (i.e born of a Jewish mother). The Law of Return granted the 'right' of 'return' to Jews who had never lived in Palestine while denying the right of return to Palestinians who had lived there for generations. Some families could trace their origins in Palestine back to the Islamic conquest of the 7th century.

The structural discrimination against the Palestinians can be measured in socio-economic statistics dealing with poverty, unemployment, access to government services and education, house construction and funding for municipalities.

Taking their cue from the government, and the openly racist statements made by senior political, military and religious figures, describing the Palestinians as 'two legged animals', 'drugged cockroaches', 'insects', 'snakes' and 'a cancer', large numbers of Israelis polled have said they do not want to live in the same apartment blocks as 'Arabs' and in fact would like to see them out of the state altogether.

The racism coming out of the mouths of rabbis and religious seminaries, couched in terms of an exclusive Jewish right to 'Eretz Israel', with many of the students or graduates of these seminaries living in the most aggressive of the West Bank settlements, is amongst the worst.

[Want2knowY]

02:57 PM on 09/16/2011

,,,until you hear and see what come out of Gaza.

[kodimirpal]

01:08 AM on 09/12/2011

According to historian Avi Shlaim, in his recent book, Israel and Palestine,

The day that the Knesset endorsed Oslo II by a majority of one, thousands of demonstrators gathered in Zion Square in Jerusalem , Benjamin Netanyahu, the leader of the Likud, was on the grandstand, while the demonstrators displayed an effigy of Rabin in SS uniform. Netanyahu set the tone with an inflammatory speech,

He called Oslo II a surrender agreement and accused Rabin of ‘causing national humiliation by accepting the dictates of the terrorist Arafat.' A month later, on November 1995, Rabin was assassinated by a religious-nationalist Jewish fanatic with the explicit aim of derailing the peace process. Rabin's demise, as his murderer expected, dealt a serious body blow to the entire peace process.”

Netanyahu contributed energy, emotional and rhetorical, that contributed to the assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Rabin.

“Netanyahu spent his two and a half years in power in a relentless attempt to arrest, freeze, and subvert the Oslo Accords.

He kept preaching reciprocity while acting unilaterally in demolishing Arab houses, imposing curfews, confiscating Arab land, building new Jewish settlements and opening an archaeological tunnel near the Muslim holy places of the Old City of Jerusalem.

Whereas the Oslo Accords left Jerusalem to the final stage of the negotiations, Netanyahu made it the centerpiece of his program in order to block progress on any other issue. His government waged an economic and political war of attrition against the Palestinians.

[mceades]

10:02 PM on 09/11/2011

1776: America unilaterally declares independence from colonial occupier. 2011: America says Palestine may declare independence only with colonial occupier's permission. Contradict much?

[anton123]

12:39 AM on 09/12/2011

No - unless you want to have a Independence war. Not enough wars in ME already?

[kodimirpal]

04:40 AM on 09/12/2011

The rules in the world depend on who the parties to the conflict

Look at the way SC of the UNO works.

Is there any justice in the working of the UNO?

[GZLives]

09:30 PM on 09/11/2011

Welcome Palestine to the UN

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HRA0NKQ0k6E

[Brewerstroupe]

12:37 AM on 09/12/2011

Annette Krüger Spitta of the ARD's (German public broadcasting) TV magazine Panorama states that footage not aired shows that the street surrounding the celebration in Jerusalem is quiet. Furthermore, she states that a man in a white T-shirt incited the children and gathered people together for the shot. The Panorama report, dated September 20, 2001, quotes Communications Professor Martin Löffelholz explaining that in the images one sees jubilant Palestinian children and several adults but there is no indication that their pleasure is related to the attack. The woman seen cheering (Nawal Abdel Fatah) stated afterwards that she was offered cake if she celebrated on camera, and was frightened when she saw the pictures on television afterward.

- Wikipedia

[GZLives]

01:30 AM on 09/12/2011

Sure

[Donncha O Giobuin]

06:03 AM on 09/12/2011

Do you hold a memorial service for the civilian casualties of the war on terror?

[kodimirpal]

07:15 AM on 09/12/2011

You rae talking about "Un-people", the WTC civilians were people,

[Matt12]

09:07 PM on 09/11/2011

Mr. Blair should resign from the embarrasing post as head envoy for the Middle East Quartet. It has zero power of influence- zero!

[anton123]

12:40 AM on 09/12/2011

Not entirely his fault - he's just one in a VERY LONG list of brilliant and smart people that tried and failed to resolve this 100 years-old conflict.

[kodimirpal]

04:43 AM on 09/12/2011

By sticking on and pretending to be fighting for peace, Blair imagines that he can recover his credibilty as a "peace maker", he has already done the confession after converting to Catholicism, now he has to confess his guilt to the people of Iraq and Afghanistan

[Sheldon archer]

07:52 PM on 09/11/2011

Too little, too late. Blair was Bush's puppet who was Israel's puppet. Had he followed what he is now saying, many lives would have been saved.

[GZLives]

09:41 PM on 09/11/2011

Are you sure Bush wasn't the puppet of 65 million Evangelical Christians who support Israel and happen to make up about 26% of the electorate

[Sheldon archer]

10:59 PM on 09/11/2011

That too.

[kodimirpal]

04:50 AM on 09/12/2011

But President Bush presented a different story to invade Iraq. Was he a lying Christian or was he serious in pulling the Christian card?

In 2003 while lobbying leaders to put together the Coalition of the Willing, President Bush spoke to France’s President Jacques Chirac. Bush wove a story about how the Biblical creatures Gog and Magog were at work in the Middle East and how they must be defeated.

In Genesis and Ezekiel Gog and Magog are forces of the Apocalypse who are prophesied to come out of the north and destroy Israel unless stopped. The Book of Revelation took up the Old Testament prophesy:

“And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle … and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them.”

Bush believed the time had now come for that battle, telling Chirac:

“This confrontat­­­­ion is willed by God, who wants to use this conflict to erase his people’s enemies before a New Age begins”.

Clive Hamilton http://www­­­­.inform­a­t­i­oncl­ea­ri­ng­h­ous­e.i­nf­o­/a­rtic­­le22­­698.­h­tm”””

[yumster]

02:23 PM on 09/11/2011

For over 60years, Palestinians have been living in refugee camps below human dignity. They have been promised peace through negotiations.Each time, Israel stalled with the help of their allies in Congress. Carter tried, they call him traitor,Bush tried they ignore him, Obama tried Netanyahu insulted him. Independent Palestine NOW.!!!!

[GZLives]

09:43 PM on 09/11/2011

Who put them in those camps to begin with?

Who stopped any Arab country that was willing to allow these Palestinians to be absorbed into their population?

Why do the Arab League hate the Palestinians?

[Brewerstroupe]

01:36 AM on 09/12/2011

Interesting point of view coming from one who sees nothing untoward in the descendants of Jews who left, mostly of their own accord 2,000 years ago, having the right to return and dispossess those whose forbears did not leave.

[Want2knowY]

03:01 PM on 09/16/2011

Kind of ignores Clinton effort in 2000-2001. I personally heard Clinton blame Arafat for the failure of those talks. Israel accepted the Cinton parameters, the Palestinians did not. Read Mr. Clinton's memoirs. Just say'n.

[Brewerstroupe]

01:35 PM on 09/11/2011

What a tangled web this amoral pansy has woven:

http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/fisk/robert-fisk-blairs-lies-and-linguistic-manipulations-449462.html

[greysells2]

11:53 AM on 09/11/2011

Blair's foreign affairs credibility was formed by his reputation as George Bush's lap dog. So his facile comments about Palestinian Statehood can be ignored in that context. Some people can help out the world by being silent. Tony Blair is one of these.

[DRGClarke]

01:09 PM on 09/11/2011

Tony Blair was a staunch friend of the US and I for one thought him and well as BUSH as true Heros. However that being said I am also not a proponant of the Palistinians having a country., They are just Arabs that the Arabs need to take care of not steal land from the Israelis. The Jews have a small well cared for country, the ARABs have millions of acres of desert. Let them go to some of that.I have zero tolorance for Terrorists

[Brewerstroupe]

04:53 PM on 09/11/2011

Yours appears to be a balanced view. I would bet your "tolorance" is matched by the number of books you have read on the History of this conflict.

[Jack Daniels Esq]

04:04 AM on 09/11/2011

And once they become 'independent' they take their begging caps out and beg for US aid

[Staxx]

03:01 AM on 09/11/2011

These folks have corrupted the meaning of the word "negotiations".

[talo821]

01:30 AM on 09/11/2011

If Palestine becomes a sovereign state.. and Hamas decides to lob 40 mortars into Israel, or fire a laser guided rocket at children in school buses for no particular reason.. Does Israel get to see it as an aggressive act by the state and kick their collective Palestinian butts instead of chasing Ali and Omar down one at a time as they characteristically hide behind kids at play and women's skirts?

[Want2knowY]

03:03 PM on 09/16/2011

With a state and attendant power will come responsibility. The Palestinains will be fully responsible for any attacks made against Israel from their borders.