Donors’ Conference in Paris

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[Key: *ppm=present prime minister]

20th December, 2007

HOLD THE FRONT PAGE - BLAIR WAS RIGHT ON IRAQ!

Just spotted this article by Philip Stephens of the FT. The point he makes also crossed my mind last week as Brown announced the troops ‘withdrawal’. No mention was made about how Blair would have been feeling as it happened; many journalist have already decided he feels nothing about anything, so that’s hardly surprising. And we know he’d have said nothing, if asked, anyway.

But, the thought came to me that since the Brown withdrawal timetable was as Blair had laid out this spring, he must have felt some kind of irritation and perhaps frustration at his forced detachment. Batman leaving Robin to finish the job.

This point in Philip Stephens’ article is well made:

Iraq, as far as Britain is concerned, is a lost war. Mr Blair’s premiership was one of its many casualties. Perhaps that explains why the former prime minister is not ready to give up on a Middle East peace deal.

To Mr Blair’s mind removing Saddam Hussein and a settlement between Israelis and Palestinians were always connected. A thousand stories have been written as to why he went to war beside George W. Bush in 2003. Nine hundred and ninety nine of them – variations on the theme of calculated deception about weapons of mass destruction or blind obeisance to the White House – are wrong. Mr Blair really did believe that regime change in Baghdad was the start of an enterprise to remake the region in the image of peace and democracy.

Yes, hold the front page! Blair was right all along.

I await, but I’m not holding my breath, the day when the small press minds, mainly British strangely, understand that our international statesman is and was the one who understood what the mess in the Middle East would bring if treated as “insoluble”.

The blind follower of Bush? I think not. Bush has finally understood that, even if only for their own political legacies, climbing on Blair’s boat over a settlement on Israel and the Palestinians, and seeing Iraq blossom as a free nation in that land so long possessed by disparate groups is the ONLY way.

No?

Give me a viable alternative to securing regional and worldwide peace. Surrendering or ignoring are not options. An alternative, please, and THEN you can criticise the efforts and motives of Tony Blair.

UK & USA TO HOST INVESTORS’ CONFERENCE

Never let it be said that Brown (who? - Gordon, the *ppm of Britain) is not part of today’s BIG International Peace Plan. Can’t allow that Blair chap to rush around the Middle East as though he’s still capable of doing something, now can we? Wonder why I get the impression that although they all leapt off the Blair sinking ship when it suited them, now that it seems to have been re-floated, they’re climbing back on board.

I only ask this:

Why in three or four months? Has Mr Brown or Mr Miliband, Foreign Secretary, got an impossibly busy diary before then? March or April is a quarter or a third of the way towards the deadline of the end of 2008. Tempus fugit.

Excerpt:

LONDON, Dec 18 (Reuters) - The United States and Britain will host an investors’ conference aimed at bolstering the Palestinian economy in Bethlehem in March or April next year, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said on Tuesday.

The meeting is designed to follow on from the international Donors’ conference held in Paris on Monday, at which donors pledged $7.4 billion in aid to the Palestinians over the next three years.

“The UK will sponsor an investors’ conference in Bethlehem on March or April 2008,” Brown told a joint news conference with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

“The United States of America and Britain together will host the conference … It’s an important signal about the need for investment to create jobs for prosperity and opportunity in the Palestinian areas,” he added.

Brown said he had been in talks with colleagues on what could be done to improve the Palestinian economy, including industrial parks, infrastructure development, microcredit and small business schemes.

So, would one of those colleagues be a certain T Blair, by any chance?

18th December, 2007

DONORS’ CALL SUCCESS

CASH OFFERS MORE THAN EXPECTED

To help set up a viable Palestinian state, three and a half billion pounds have been promised at the Donors’ Conference in Paris today, exceeding the amount the Palestinians had been asking for by £0.7bn. They had requested £2.8bn.

Britain will be spending £243m over the next several years.

This is clearly a sign of the support that nations are putting into this project, and will be a welcome start. Tony Blair’s presence and clear deep engagement at the heart of the project, which is to build the infrastructure, business and communities for Palestinians, is likely to have helped donor countries in their confidence, despite all the negative vibes.

TONY BLAIR - 8 Minute VIDEO IN PARIS

Watch Tony Blair speak at the Paris Conference.

An animated and enthusiastic Mr Blair’s key points:

• I think the message that should go out from this conference is very simple. It is to seize the moment.
• The reasons for optimism; first, the Annapolis Conference … it did not resolve issues, but launched the process to resolve with a timeline of 2008 all the key issues in this process.
• Secondly, this conference, and the new Palestinian leadership determined on a route of peace to secure a state for the Palestinian people. And a document from people who want to govern, not protest.
• Third reason for confidence, we have an agreement to implement the first stages of the roadmap to change the facts on the ground … people must notice the difference.
• This is a beginning with a different strategy, a chance to get to, over the coming months, a minimum threshold of credibility in this process.
• This is not just a donors’ conference, it is a state-building conference.
• I’d like to pay tribute to Condi Rice and President Bush.
• It is a beginning, however. A new beginning. We know there are still immense challenges, frustrations and problems. Here we must see it from both sides, from both sides. Worry of ordinary Israelis and from the Palestinian perspective … the misery and injustice of having their territory occupied.
• As the President of France has rightly said it is a chance.
• If in the end the people, Israelis or Palestinians don’t believe there is a chance to succeed then the politicians will never have the power to make this deal. But if we can achieve that minimum threshold of credibility by the patient difficult task of change on the ground, in the reality of people’s lives then the politicians will be empowered to make the compromises, to make the agreements necessary to reach peace.
• In all my years as British Prime Minister I learnt many things but one thing I learnt above all else, that in the end you divide the world into those that commentate and those that do. And the commentators always have the best lines. Because they can tell you all the reasons why you can’t succeed, why it’s hopeless, why there’s no point, why haven’t you learned from experience, in effect you end up paralysed.
• We will not rest until we have that two-state solution a reality in this region of the world.
• That is our task and with the right will and determination it can be our achievement.

Read the Press Association Report here

Read the Financial Times interview here. Excerpt here.

See report on Paris talks.

Officials from 68 countries in Paris have pledged a multi-billion dollar aid package for Palestinians, in the biggest such meeting for a decade.

To help set up a viable Palestinian state, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas wants $5.6bn (£2.8bn) by 2010.

Donor pledges:

European Union: $650m in 2008

US: $555m in 2008

France: $300m over three years

Germany: $290m over three years

Japan: $150m

South Korea: $13m over three years

President Nicolas Sarkozy opened the Donors Conference this morning in Paris.

Excerpt:

PARIS (Reuters) - France kicked off an international donors conference to boost the Palestinian economy on Monday, with delegations expected to offer some $5.6 billion (2.8 billion pounds) and give political impetus to the renewed Middle East peace talks.

The one-day meeting is the financial sequel to the launch last month in Annapolis of the first peace negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians in seven years.

“After years of violence, after years of mistrust, Annapolis revived hope,” French President Nicolas Sarkozy said at the opening of the conference.

“Be generous, be audacious. Peace depends on it and this peace will help all the world,” he told delegates from nearly 90 countries and organisations, including U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Middle East envoy Tony Blair.

Before the Donors’ meeting began, the ICRC, International Committee of the Red Cross, demanded political action now on the West Bank and Gaza.

But the ICRC now says that life in the West bank and Gaza Strip has become so dreadful that no amount of humanitarian aid can really help.

Broad Outline of the Peace Process as agreed at Annapolis.

I enjoyed this blog, particularly the “I Think” page. Might use it. Thanks to Solomania.

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P.S. From BBC’s Tim Franks -“You don’t often hear Tony Blair disagree with current UK foreign policy - or US policy, for that matter - but he did, this week.”
Here Tim Franks is pointing out that Blair has actually disagreed with British & US policy on visiting Jerusalem. He was in Bethlehem at the time of this betrayal of common purpose, as part of his efforts to build the Palestinian economy into the bedrock of a Palestinian state.It’s only a propos his sleepover in Bethlehem last week, when he urged people to visit the city. Mr Franks points out, as I did, that Mr Blair is better protected than your average bearer of a passport, but to Mr Franks it’s of great importance that the Mid-East envoy said something which was not being said by his own government or the main sponsor of his new job.Excerpt:

‘It seemed churlish to point out to Mr Blair that he travelled with the sort of gun-laden, earpiece-wearing retinue unavailable to most tourists.

But I did ask him how his assertions sat with the travel advice from the British and American governments - which is, in essence: do not go to the Occupied Territories unless you really have to.

Mr Blair was plain: “I think it is time to reconsider the (travel) advice,” he told me.

“There are real opportunities for people to come here and see what is a spectacular, extraordinary, historic place.”‘

Well, he’s been set free of such constraints now. If you think THAT was something different, just wait a bit.

Financial Times excerpt - Blair interview on prospects, at start of Donors’ Conference, Paris.

Blair sees Mideast solution beyond territory

By James Blitz and Roula Khalaf in London

Published: December 17 2007 02:00 | Last updated: December 17 2007 02:00

Tony Blair brings to his job as the international community’s Middle East envoy the instinctive optimism that was his hallmark as Britain’s prime minister.

But four months into the role, Mr Blair is also realistic about the task ahead and the concessions Israelis and Palestinians must make next year if they are to forge a peace settlement.

Preparing for a conference today that hopes to raise some $5.6bn for the Palestinian Authority over the next three years, Mr Blair spelt out the international community’s message to the Palestinians.

The creation of a Palestinian state does not simply amount to defining territory, but is also about how the Palestinians manage themselves, particularly on the security front, he said.

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THE IMPOSSIBLE DREAM?
A few months ago, when Tony Blair was first accused, often disparagingly, of pursuing “the impossible”, I put together this video and uploaded it to YouTube. I noticed yesterday at the Paris conference that Mr Blair made the same point that my video makes … the peace process needs the people on board. Without that, it is still impossible. And even with that, it might prove impossible. But I’m content that the doers are doing. Perhaps those “with the best lines”, (the commentators), will now let the doers get on with it.

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Tags: donors conference, Gaza, Hamas, Israelis, middle east, millions, Palestinians, Paris, reconstruction, Sarkozy, Tony Blair, uk, usa, West Bank