Palestinian PM urges Blair to play fair

[Shakira]

Mr Qureia said: "I don't agree with Mr Blair that we have the responsibility. On the ground, the Israelis still continue to confiscate land, expand settlements, construct bypass roads. Add to that the wall, which divides the Palestinian territories. Who allowed them to build a wall inside the Palestinian territories with a height of eight metres?

"These are the real violations to the process and these are the obstacles. If want to be fair, they should ask Israel first to stop all these kinds of violations...We cannot speak and open one eye, we have to open our two eyes."

Last month, Mr Blair said that while he was critical of some of Israel's policies, he did not believe the peace process would restart unless there was a "credible security plan". He said that such a plan should allow "people to believe genuinely that every attempt is being made to stop the support of terrorism".

The Palestinian Authority's news agency called his comments "obscene" and described the prime minister as "hypocritical".


www.guardian.co.uk/israel/

[MikeGalos]

1. Interesting to see

the PA's official view of obscene is "every attempt is being made to stop the support of terrorism"

I think that says it all.

[LostInTheMaise]

2. Play fair?

You mean the PA wants Blair to start blowing up busses full of children and women? The PA needs to be eliminated period.

[Jack Rabbit]

3. It's hard to respond to this

First, a more direct link to the article.

If Mr. Qureia had any real authority, I would say his remarks were unsatisfactory. As it is, they're just irrelevant.

Peace means a nonaggression pact with Israel. That means no more attacks on Israeli targets. That means the PA needs to come up with some sort of credible security plan that will include measures to prevent private parties from usurping the authority of the government of Palestine to make war.

If Mr. Qureia had any real authority and still didn't understand some part of that any better than he suggests he does, I would recommend that he step aside in favor of somebody who does.