The British are right - again, and again, and again...

Daily Star Editorial

It is always heartening to hear British Prime Minister Tony Blair and his

foreign secretary, Jack Straw, remind us of how central the

Palestinian-Israeli conflict is to peace and stability in the Middle East.

We always appreciate hearing such words, for we've heard them quite

frequently in recent years, and we'll probably keep hearing them in coming

years. Jack Straw was very correct when he told the governing Labour

Party's annual conference that there was no "greater challenge to

international order than the terrible conflict between the Israelis and

Palestinians."

Tony Blair for his part made it a point before the war on Iraq last year

that the U.K. would spearhead a move to help resolve the Arab-Israeli

conflict and see the creation of a Palestinian state. Well, the war in Iraq

is still raging in a different form, and the British pledge continues to

ring eloquently, if hollow. To be fair, Tony Blair certainly made an effort

with George W. Bush to focus American diplomatic attention on the

Palestine-Israel conflict, but he seems to have been rebuffed or ignored.

He invested time and effort, and some political capital, on moving this

issue forward, yet at the moment of truth he buckled and failed to deliver.

With events in Iraq spinning out of control, the U.S. and U.K. are in the

same leaky political boat, and the hostage issue adds further domestic

pressure on a suddenly more vulnerable Blair.In this context, the British prime minister should regroup and charge again

into the diplomatic arena of the Arab-Israeli conflict and its links with

wider tensions in the Middle East. The same old rhetoric and pledges will

do - because they still make sense. Solving the Palestinian-Israeli

conflict remains the single most useful contribution one could make to

promoting a more peaceful, prosperous Middle East. Great Britain can do

this in two ways - by finding a more effective means of influencing

American policy on achieving meaningful Palestinian statehood, and by

forging a closer, more dynamic European policy on the same issue.

The devastation and suffering of Iraqis and their invaders cry out for a

more forceful global diplomatic initiative to address the core problems in

the Middle East, with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict at the center of

them all, as the British leadership presciently reminds us every six months

or so.

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Source: Daily Star, October 1, 2004

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Distributed by the Common Ground News Service.