[Ha'aretz] Barak Ravid, David Landau, Aluf Benn and Shmuel Rosner - Quartet envoy Tony Blair said in an interview in Washington on Wednesday he no longer believes that "land for peace," in and of itself, is sufficient. What is no less important, in his view, is the character of the Palestinian state. He constantly warns senior PA officials: "There won't be a Palestinian state unless it is coherently governed and run, and anyone who tells you different is misleading you." What Blair has tried to explain to the Arab world and to the Palestinians is that they must understand how the events in Gaza have affected the Israeli public and leadership. If one looks at it from the vantage point of Israelis, they left Gaza, evacuated 7,000 settlers, and ended up with a Hamas takeover. Blair believes that anyone who wants to reach a solution has to understand that Israelis' security concerns are genuinely and deeply felt.
2007-11-30 01:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive