Would I buy a used car from Tony?
Maybe if I was going to use it in the Demolition Derby, because it would already be a wreck!
Tony Blair's chief asset is that he can talk fast out of both sides of his mouth at the same time, confusing and disarming all but the the most intrepid journalists and interviewers as they try to cut through his layered double-speak. Thus he was able to sell the Iraq Adventure and phony War on Terror to the British people with great fanfare and disaster, and thus has he managed, thus far, to ingratiate himself with the world community as some sort of honest broker for the Middle East, all the while he stirs the cauldron full of a witch's brew of heavy poisons for the Palestinians, and, to add insult to injury, all the while he tells them he has only their best interests at heart, sort of like a wife-beater telling his battered wife he really loves her.
How many times do the Palestinians have to get the Hell kicked out of them figuratively and literally before they, and most of the rest of the world, demand a divorce?!
In light of Blair's character, history and allegiances, a key strategic goal for gaining statehood for Palestine should be:
KICK TONY BLAIR OUT OF THE INTERNATIONAL QUARTET! Troy fell for the Trojan Horse and look what happened to them!!
Al Jazeera's Mawan Bishara, an astute analyst in the Middle East whose voice has a fair amount of impact, puts this another way in this excerpt from his latest editorial:
Tony Blair: Time to go?
by Marwan Bishara, a senior political analyst at Al jazeera.
As point-man for the international Quartet, the former UK PM should not be defending Israel at Palestine's expense.
An ardent supporter of the Iraq war, Tony Blair is now tasked with brokering Middle East peace [AFP]
Tony Blair has been a political salesman since he first made his debut at the British Labour Party conference. And he is good, no doubt about that.
Not only because he speaks coherently; he is Scottish after all. Nor is it because he's often compared with George W Bush.
It's because Tony could peddle ideas and sell economic and military agendas better than most.
The question is: Would you buy a used car from Tony?
The Palestinians and the Arabs in general have concluded enough is enough.
Nabil Sha'ath, the Palestinian Authority's first ever foreign minister, told me last year: "Forget Tony Blair. I think Mr Blair is at the wrong time at the wrong place and he's just making it easier for Mr Netanyahu to deceive us, really, in more ways than one."
Despite their suspicion that Blair betrayed them on more than a few occasions - siding with Israel behind their backs - he remained set in his position shuttling between Jerusalem, London and Washington.
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