Blair Blames Terror on Arab-Israeli Conflict
IsraelNationalNews.com | Jul 10, '05 | Scott Shiloh
British Prime Minister Tony Blair sees the Arab-Israeli dispute as one of the main reasons behind the London bombings. The group claiming responsibility puts it third on a list of grievances.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair has attributed last week’s bombings in London to the Arab-Israeli dispute and lack of democracy in the Middle East. At least 70 people were estimated to have been killed in bombing attacks that gripped London last Thursday, with hundreds more wounded.
Blair told the BBC that precluding terrorist attacks was not necessarily a question of taking preventative security measures. “The underlying problems have to be dealt with,” he said.
"We need to create the circumstances in which some of the critical issues in the Middle East are dealt with and sorted out, and where people can see out there in the Middle East that there is a perfectly good path to democracy if people want to take it," said Blair.
Blair’s analysis differs from that of the Bush administration which views an all out war on terror combined with preventative security measures in the United States and abroad as the most effective means of combating terrorism.
Blair’s comments are significant because they represent a shift in emphasis away from using the military as the primary means of fighting terrorism, as in the war in Iraq and Afganistan, toward a policy that would address the preceived political and economic roots of terrorism.
Some commentators have suggested that Blair’s approach may have been a factor in the decision of the G8 industrialized nations meeting in London to allocate $3 billion in aid to the Palestinian Authority. Uzi Arad, who served as an advisor to Binyamin Netanyahu when Netanyahu was prime minister, said on Israeli radio this morning that the allocation was tantamount to paying “protection money” to terrorists as a means to forestall future attacks.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------This is very revealing. Be prepared for more speeches about funneling money to the Palestinians.