A middle way
- 24 Jul 06, 05:57 PM
Is there a middle way between telling Israel to stop or encouraging her - in effect - to carry on?
Tony Blair clearly thinks there is. At in Downing Street this afternoon (watch Blair's statement here) I asked him which of these two messages he was sending to Israel. He insisted that that was not the choice. "I want the killing to stop. I want the killing to stop on both sides," he said, "but it's not going to happen on both sides unless we have a plan to make it".
When a journalist from the Middle East translated this as "you want the killing to go on" the Prime Minister shook his head as if in despair. He knows that the fighting in Lebanon is dividing the coalition against terrorism which he is so desperate to build.
At his side - but clearly not shoulder to shoulder with him - Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said that Israel's action in Lebanon would "backfire" in Iraq, that it would result in a "great push to fundamentalism" and send a "negative message" to those who want peace.
Tony Blair blames Hezbollah for this crisis and says that "the purpose is to force moderate people to divide".
Today showed the clearest possible illustration of that.
