Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas meets with Quartet Envoy Tony Blair in Ramallah, September 2007.
This article by Ali Gharib, The Electronic Intifada, 26 September 2008, describes a report from over 20 international humanitarian organizations, which have been ultimately involved in alleviating Palestinian suffering and/or supporting their cause for a fair and just peace in their conflict with the Israelis, who continue to confiscate their lands.
So what has the Quartet done in over a year’s period of time with Tony Blair at the helm?
Not a thing. Israel remains on a trajectory to annex the Palestinian territories and give the conflict a new face: Apartheid. And Blair along with the Quartet he represents will be thanked for their complicity to the injustice.
WASHINGTON, (IPS) – A new report from several international aid organizations blasts the Quartet, an international group assembled to facilitate the Middle East peace process, for failing to meet their goals in advancing a lasting peace between Israel and Palestinians.
“The Middle East Quartet is failing — making inadequate progress towards improving the lives of Palestinians nor improving the prospects for peace,” said a press release from the involved aid organizations announcing the report.
The report, “The Middle East Quartet: A Progress Report”, says that none of criteria laid out by the Quartet itself have seen significant improvement, and some have even experienced backsliding. In all of the objectives listed by the report, which are based on the most recent statements of the Quartet, most were graded by the report as failures, with a few achieving the qualified status of “partial success.”
The report, assembled by a coalition of 21 aid agencies including Oxfam International, Save the Children UK, World Vision Jerusalem, and CARE International UK, notes that 2008 was viewed by all parties involved as a crucial year for the peace process.
Read the rest of this article, HERE.
Blair, as the Quartet representative, has been quite a joke, in fact. Photo ops aside, even his sister-in-law, as part of the Free Gaza Movement boat expedition, was able to contribute more in just a few weeks than Blair himself in years. It could not be believe when Blair became a committed Islamophobic, whose main concern is the Iranians rather than the people yearning for freedom and self-determination in their own lands: the Palestinians.
Thanks for the diary, shergald. Blair’s performance has been worse than disappointing.
On another note, a commenter in I/P at dKos took such interest in one of our recent conversations here, that he linked to it. Who knows how much orange traffic he generated for this small site related to some topics that have been neglected at dKos?
Well, that’s old MBNYC. I understand he is a crony of Hunter and the California jazz singer who came on strong with him, who later got banned after everyone else, of course.
MBNYC is pretty much like aAmerican: they give you the “I’m for two states” routine, then scream at any criticism of Israeli behavior like the occupation and colonialism going on, that contradicts that very thing, a right wing Zionist or Likudnik position. MBNYC was over at MyDD for a while then disappeared, unless he came back as a sockpuppet.
PS: No question the right wingers were highly organized and the term “cabal” which I still use, applied then as now. Why would MBNYC be snooping around other sites? Certainly others do as well.
Daily Kos is a plum if only for its daily visitor numbers, and it must be regained. Can you talk to litho and jon to get them using this publicity resource again, which is being wasted.
Did you see this article by Jim Lobe, Iran Resolution Shelved in Rare Defeat for ‘Israel Lobby’?
Yes, I did. And I was thinking about doing a piece but I chose to run an article about the failure of the Quartet today. Maybe tomorrow unless someone else puts it up. Of course, since you have access to DKos, and and a potential audience 200 times larger than Booman and the other sites I blog on, you could do it with greater impact yourself. Just an idea.
If eyeballs are your greatest concern, perhaps you should try HuffPo. The numbers for Daily Kos have fallen off lately.
but NY Sun reports Sarah Palin is particularly proud that the only flag in her office is Israeli:
http://www.nysun.com/national/palin-only-flag-in-my-office-is-israeli/86671
(um, not even an Alaskan flag? Much likes our good old Stars & Stripes??)
The obligatory sucking up lest the Lobby find somebody else’s tail to wag.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article4925056.ece