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| Blair stands up for Israel
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British prime minister Tony Blair has spoken out against opponents of Israel who have ignored the deaths of innocent Israelis during the recent conflict with Hezbollah.
Speaking at the annual conference of the Trade Union Congress in Brighton on Tuesday, the Labour party leader said many people have preferred to focus on the deaths of Lebanese civilians rather than Israelis.
In a strongly worded, speech, which began by focusing on the impact of globalisation, Blair said: “The global Muslim community feels humiliated and angry. They feel pinned between the policy of the US, the UK and its allies on the one hand; and the extremists within, on the other.
“The result is that in the Lebanese conflict, many people, Muslim and non-Muslim, will rail against Israel but often with barely a mention of the deaths of innocent Israelis, admittedly fewer, but each life is a life, or the 4,000 Iranian supplied rockets fired into the north of Israel.”
Who is responsible?
Blair has been under fire from may British activists as well as a large number of people from his own party since the start of the war when he refused to call for a ceasefire.
However, despite the walkout from many more left wing Labourites at the Brighton Conference Centre, the prime minister remained steadfast in his views.
In a thinly veiled attack on the Hamas leadership of the Palestinian Authority, Blair said: “The Palestinian leadership are passionate in their condemnation of their treatment by Israel. But don’t believe that they don’t know why the crisis in Gaza was started and who was responsible.”
He also referred to his trip to the Middle East last week, which included meetings with his Israeli counterpart Ehud Olmert in Jerusalem, Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah and Lebanese prime minister Fouad Siniora, and welcomed controversial plans for the Palestinians to form a national unity government to include both Hamas and the more moderate Fatah party.
Although many in the international community have welcomed this move, Israel has said it would not recognise any government which includes Hamas unless the organisation denounces terrorism and recognises Israel and any past treaties between Israel and the Palestinians.
Peace hopes
Blair said that during his time in Israel, the areas controlled by the Palestinian Authority and Lebanon he had found “a natural desire always to concentrate on the surface eruptions of conflict.”
Stressing his hopes for peace in the region, he added: “Peace in Palestine is not only just and right, it is the indispensable precondition for rolling back the momentum of this global terrorist movement which threatens us.
“The peace must be on the right terms. I have shown my support for Israel’s right to be secure and I will continue to do so. Peace which threatens its security is no peace. But on the right terms it must be done.
“Yesterday’s announcement of a Government of national unity in Palestine is precisely what I hoped for. On the basis it is faithful to the conditions spelled out by the Quartet - the UN, EU, US and Russia - we should lift the economic sanctions on the Palestinian Authority and be prepared to deal with the Government, the whole Government. Then piece by piece, step by step, we must put a process of peace back together again.”
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