Blair much criticised within Labour over Israel support

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LONDON (EJP)--- British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s Middle East peace mission won him little support within the British Labour Party, with a swathe of MPs regarding him as too pro-Israeli - and too close to leaving office - to have a serious impact in the region.

Blair has claimed that this week’s high-profile tour of the region, which took in Israel, the Palestinian territories, Egypt, Iraq and Dubai, got people talking about the long-stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace process, as well as boosting the Iraqi Government’s attempt to install security in the war torn country.

But speaking to EJP on Thursday, figures on different sides of the Labour spectrum said that Blair’s reaction to Israel’s conflict with Hezbollah last summer in Lebanon - where he refused calls to demand an immediate Israeli ceasefire amid media scenes of mounting civilian casualties - had left him widely discredited within the Labour Party’s grassroots on Middle Eastern issues, as well as damaging his legitimacy in the Arab world in his bid to appear as a neutral broker on the Middle East.

In addition, Blair is so close to leaving office that many within the party regard his hopes of a Middle East solution in an extremely short timeframe to be unrealistic.

The Prime Minister is expected to stand down next summer after 10 years as British leader, when he is likely to be replaced by the country’s Finance Minister, known in the UK as Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown.

http://www.ejpress.org/article/news/uk/12449