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Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2007/07/25/do2505.xml
Blair's New Role
[Telegraph-UK] Tim Butcher - Israelis are acutely sensitive about outsiders coming to address the Israeli-Palestinian question, but Blair's eloquence has bestowed on him a sort of star status in the Jewish state. For many Israelis, the threat they have faced from militant Palestinians for decades is no different from the threat faced by the West from militant Islam and they have lapped up Blair's post 9/11 rhetoric. But perhaps the thing Israelis feel most comfortable about is that Blair's new job does not really involve Israel. He is mandated to help Palestinians prepare for statehood by exploring ways to build their economy, organs of state and infrastructure. Blair's remit does not, so far, stray one inch beyond this. As Condoleezza Rice, the American Secretary of State, made clear last week, the tough politics between Israelis and Palestinians will be led not by Blair, but by Washington.