Hamas must be brought into peace process, says Tony Blair

The Times by Philip Webster | Feb. 1, 2009 (News Report)

Hamas must somehow be brought into the Middle East peace process because the policy of isolating Gaza in the quest for a settlement will not work, Tony Blair has told The Times.

The former prime minister implicitly criticises the strategy followed by the Bush Administration and Israel of focusing all peace and reconstruction efforts on the West Bank. “It was half of what we needed,” he said.

In an interview with Ginny Dougary in the ... Full Story »

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by Naomi Isler - Feb. 2, 2009

The emphasis is on what Blair was saying now as opposed to what he was publicly apparently acquiescing in earlier is interesting. And the 'quartet' he now represents also has conditions for Hamas participation in talks. But his bottom line is correct: in a situation like this you need to talk to everyone.

I assume that 'everyone' also includes Egypt, which after all controls the other set of entry points (and tunnels) to Gaza, and which has been as unwilling as Israel to unseal the entries or unable to blow up the tunnels.