FROM OUR CORRESPONDENT
JERUSALEM – Here he is again. The last time he dealt with the Arab-Israeli conflict, when he was seconded by the UN-US-EU-Russia Quartet for eight years, it was certainly not a success: very high costs for him and his staff and no results. This time Tony Blair has opted for a much more reserved profile. He traveled from Jordan and met silently with Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu and Defense Minister Benny Gantz last week.
No official statement, never a statement, except for two lines in which he denied that his mission concerns the refugees from Gaza and their future resettlement to Egypt and other countries. The former British prime minister, say government sources in Jerusalem, has proposed himself as an intermediary between Bibi and the moderate Arab leaders of Saudi Arabia, the Emirates and Qatar: it is the “Day After Plan”, an initial map of what will happen in Gaza could be when (when?) the war will be over.
Blair has been out of active politics for around fifteen years, but has opened a consulting firm that works with around forty governments around the world: he has a turnover of 160 million euros a year and his name is considered a fashion brand. high diplomacy. However, the leak of information about the arrival angered the person concerned, they explain, who does not forget how many strong criticisms accompanied his years as emissary of the Quartet: the former Labor leader found himself in the crosshairs due to the pharaonic crowd of collaborators who accompanied him, without saying anything about the task assigned to his wife to lead the dialogue with the women's world in the West Bank.
Blair has never stopped following the issue closely: “I often say this to the Palestinians – this is his suggestion -: they should learn from the peace agreement that ended the war in Northern Ireland.” They need to change strategy. And look at the result. A “Good Friday Agreement” à la Belfast that will lead to two states for two peoples: When Tony and Bibi talked about it, however, the Jewish Sabbath had already begun and the two promised to see each other again.