Two-State Solution Will Pave Way for Lebanon-Israel Talks
Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair has said that resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is the "single most important thing we can do to restore peace in the region", adding that this would pave the way for peace between Israel and Syria on the one hand and Israel and Lebanon on the other.
Blair made his remarks Tuesday night as part of the Issam M. Fares Lecture Series at Tufts University in Boston addressing a near-capacity crowd of students, local officials and dignitaries from around the world.
"Resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is the single most important thing we can do to restore peace and stability in that region," said Blair, who is also the special envoy of the Middle East Quartet, a group comprising the U.S., Russia, the European Union and the United Nations that is mediating the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.
A solution to the conflict, he said, would mean that peace negotiations "between Israel and Syria and Israel and Lebanon will not be far" and the impact of such peace would be felt across the region and the world.
In an indirect swipe at the former U.S. administration”s policy in the Middle East, Blair said a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was still possible if "we, like (U.S. President Barak) Obama insist on dealing with the issue a bit more seriously".
"If we were able, in that conflict, to provide the basis for peace… that would be the single most powerful expression of coexistence that there could possibly be," he said.
In attendance Tuesday were President Lawrence S. Bacow, Nijad Fares, representing the Fares family, and Leila Fawaz, Issam M. Fares, Professor of Lebanese and Eastern Mediterranean Studies and founding director of the Fares Center for Eastern Mediterranean Studies.
The audience also included Antoine Chedid, the ambassador of Lebanon to the United States, Somerville Mayor Joseph A. Curtatone and the consuls-general from several countries including Great Britain, Canada, Colombia, Japan and Switzerland.
While insisting that peace in the Middle East can only be achieved through diplomacy, Blair said that Israel”s "security needs must be balanced with encouraging progress in the West Bank".
Blair remained upbeat despite Israel”s recent military offensive on the Gaza Strip that left at least 1,300 people dead. He said that last year brought the "beginnings of hope and prosperity" to the region; a trend he said must be pursued.
He said that the conflict in Gaza requires a "different and more creative approach, one that would guarantee the pre-empting of extremists and would offer the people of Gaza a way out of their misery".
Blair made an urgent appeal to achieve peace in a region long beset by violence and conflict.
"We can”t afford to let another year pass without substantial progress on this issue," he said. "Let us start to make 2009 the year we bring peace to the Middle East.
Speaking of global interdependence, Blair admitted that the days of Western hegemony are long gone adding that world conflicts and challenges are "far too complex to solve through military means alone".
Issues such as terrorism need to be tackled globally, Blair said, adding that "not even a country as powerful as the U.S. can simply go it alone anymore".
"We live in an era of global interdependence that relies on international alliances to confront a shared set of challenges", he said.
In understanding the culture of Islam, Blair said it is important to understand "there are two narratives taking place. On one side are the modern Muslims who believe the answer to their challenges is to modernize and join the 21st century".
Against the pro-modern Muslims are those who Blair said appear to be more a reaction to the modern world.
"It is an ideology not based on the Koran," Blair said, "but an ideology based on the seventh century interpretation of the Koran."
"Terrorism is used by such extremists," Blair continued, "and is used as a powerful weapon. It”s used to destabilize and it”s used to provoke."
He called for "a new level of diplomacy" since many countries of the world have become far too interconnected.
"If we are to defeat it [terrorism], we have to be prepared to adopt a far better, more strategic vision of the future," said Blair. "One where we see the future as shared and we cannot simply impose our views on other people."
"We need also the language and the instances and the policies of effective diplomacy," he continued. "We have to reach into the region in a more detailed and articulate way than before."
"The world is opening up," he said. "There is a coming together. Do we make that coming together work or do we make that coming together a source of friction and division that then leads to a coming apart?
"The days of Western supremacy are over," said Blair. "We cannot superimpose our view of the world on other people".