Another PA Boycott

Imagine, Tony Blair, the special rapporteur for the Middle East Quartet is in bad odour with the Palestinian Authority. Who believe him to be rather too sympathetic to Israeli interests. However would they arrive at that consensus of opinion? They're threatening to take action that will effectively neutralize him; neuter him at the very least, giving his 'special envoy' status a heave into the garbage dump.

"There is no one within the Palestinian leadership that supports or likes or trusts Tony Blair, particularly because of the very dangerous role he played during our UN bid", said one Palestinian official. "He is considered persona non grata in Palestine. Although we can't prevent him from coming here, we can hopefully minimize the role he can play because he is not a mediator. He is totally biased on one side."

Could've fooled the Israelis, methinks. He does have rather impeccable credentials, nonetheless. There's his wife Cherie and her leftist enthusiasms, and her sister, Lauren Booth, who was inspired to become a Muslim; surely their influence has canted his bias toward the Palestinians...?

Let's face it, Mr. Blair was quietly going about doing his job to the best of his abilities. He didn't shout from the rooftops: "Give the Palestinians their State!" because it might have seemed rather at odds with his mandate on behalf of the Quartet. His mission was to bring Israel and the Palestinian Authority to the negotiating table.

To prod them to find enough common ground to reach an agreement whereby each country would, through some form of sacrifice in abandoning some aspirational goal for the greater good of peace between them, find a peace agreement within reach. And with that agreement signed, sealed and delivered, progression to a Palestinian State.

Which state would continue to be reliant for a goodly portion of its economic success on ongoing placid relations with its neighbour. Receiving much of its energy resources through a compliant Israel, and trade opportunities, as well as the sharing of security, and guidance in best practises of all sorts, inclusive of social services, education, manufacturing, and the judiciary.

That's the pie-in-the-sky aspect of the situation, reflecting what the world at large feels should be happening, and which the PA has put the skids on. Removing themselves from the peace process in an orchestrated huff over something that has offered them a way out of an arrangement they are not fully invested in.

After over 60 years of being 'refugees', hugely dependent on the generosity of the international community for their ongoing financial support, the Palestinians still refuse to acknowledge to themselves that their drive to destroy Israel by whatever means possible; either violent revenge, or malicious reputation-bashing, will not gain them what they most wish for.

And that is, of course, to go back in time, to that era when they felt they were the inheritors of the land that was contested by Egypt and Jordan and eyed by others in the region as well. When Israel pulled the rug out from under their assurance of being masters of the geography the choice to divide the land simply wasn't a palatable option for them. Nor for their Arab neighbours.

That's all water under the dam, but the damn dam keeps bursting.