Blair is fair
During these times when all world leaders seem incompetent and unintelligent, including Israel's current leadership, one man stands out and makes his mark. His name is Tony Blair. During his recent visit to Israel, he took the time to interview with Ha'aretz. I highly recommend you read it - as he discusses many points and issues.
One of his wise assessments is conveyed through his message that: Western leaders are increasingly aware of the global nature of the struggle against Islamic extremism led by Iran, but within Western public opinion "there is a big battle to be won."
A couple of quotes from the interview... read the full version here.
Regarding Iran, do you agree with the comparisons to the 1930s that we often read about?
When you have the President of a country as powerful as Iran say those things, it may be very foolish of us to assume he doesn't mean them. And when he's also trying to acquire a nuclear weapon, then I think the warning signs are pretty clear... I think for a president of a country to say they want to wipe another country off the face of the earth and at the same time he's trying to acquire a nuclear weapons capability - if we don't get worried about that, future historians will raise a few questions about us and about our judgment.
We in our paper see your political difficulties and the battle of ideology as very closely linked. We have witnessed with a certain amount of sorrow your inability to inculcate this awareness in your own public opinion and among Western European opinion.
Yeah, but you know in the end sometimes it takes people a long time to wake up. And sometimes these struggles go over a whole generation, almost. It's less important what my position is - but as you say rightly, I expect it indicates that we've got a big job to do.
But I think that underneath opinion is changing. On the surface I agree at the moment, no, it isn't. But underneath people are beginning to see it change. Now my own view is that if we were able to revive the Palestinian process that would be a huge part of persuading opinion that the one issue where even quite moderate Muslims just feel frustration and anger - that we were dealing with it now.
...I know from the Israeli point of view how frustrating it is to be told, you know, this is an issue that in the interest of the world has got to be solved... and you worry in Israel that maybe our interests get sacrificed in the course of finding a solution. I hope that I've done enough to prove that I will never sacrifice the security of Israel in that way. But I do genuinely believe that our job has got to be to build that alliance of moderation and empower the moderate Muslims and Arab voices.
One of his wise assessments is conveyed through his message that: Western leaders are increasingly aware of the global nature of the struggle against Islamic extremism led by Iran, but within Western public opinion "there is a big battle to be won."
A couple of quotes from the interview... read the full version here.
Regarding Iran, do you agree with the comparisons to the 1930s that we often read about?
When you have the President of a country as powerful as Iran say those things, it may be very foolish of us to assume he doesn't mean them. And when he's also trying to acquire a nuclear weapon, then I think the warning signs are pretty clear... I think for a president of a country to say they want to wipe another country off the face of the earth and at the same time he's trying to acquire a nuclear weapons capability - if we don't get worried about that, future historians will raise a few questions about us and about our judgment.
We in our paper see your political difficulties and the battle of ideology as very closely linked. We have witnessed with a certain amount of sorrow your inability to inculcate this awareness in your own public opinion and among Western European opinion.
Yeah, but you know in the end sometimes it takes people a long time to wake up. And sometimes these struggles go over a whole generation, almost. It's less important what my position is - but as you say rightly, I expect it indicates that we've got a big job to do.
But I think that underneath opinion is changing. On the surface I agree at the moment, no, it isn't. But underneath people are beginning to see it change. Now my own view is that if we were able to revive the Palestinian process that would be a huge part of persuading opinion that the one issue where even quite moderate Muslims just feel frustration and anger - that we were dealing with it now.
...I know from the Israeli point of view how frustrating it is to be told, you know, this is an issue that in the interest of the world has got to be solved... and you worry in Israel that maybe our interests get sacrificed in the course of finding a solution. I hope that I've done enough to prove that I will never sacrifice the security of Israel in that way. But I do genuinely believe that our job has got to be to build that alliance of moderation and empower the moderate Muslims and Arab voices.
posted by ehurwitz at 5:55 AM
2 Comments:
too bad he's on his way out...
Yea, too bad Osama Bin Laden doesn't take over, eh?
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