arab vs israel - blair speaks plain-speak!!!

Blair to Congress: Mideast peace key to winning war on terror


By News Agencies



WASHINGTON - British Prime Minister Tony Blair told
the United States Congress on Thursday that the
war on terror would not be won without peace
between Israel and the Palestinians.

"There is one cause terrorism
rides upon, a cause they have
no belief in but can
manipulate," he said. "I want
to be very plain: This
terrorism will not be defeated
without peace in the Middle
East between Israel and
Palestine."

In the first address to Congress by a British
prime minister since Margaret Thatcher in 1985,
Blair said that the entire Arab world must
recognize the State of Israel, and end
incitement against both Israel and Jews.

"Here it is that the poison is incubated. Here
it is that the extremist is able to confuse in
the mind of a frighteningly large number of
people the case for a Palestinian state and the
destruction of Israel, and to translate this
moreover into a battle between East and West,
Muslim, Jew and Christian.

"May this never compromise the security of the
State of Israel. The State of Israel should be
recognized by the entire Arab world, and the
vile propaganda used to indoctrinate children,
not just against Israel but against Jews, must
cease.

"You cannot teach people hate and then ask them
to practice peace. But neither can you teach
people peace except by according them dignity
and granting them hope.

Innocent Israelis suffer. So do innocent
Palestinians."

The prime minister also Congress that he
believes "with every fiber of instinct and
conviction" that the U.S. and British led war
on Iraq was justified - and that history will
forgive them if weapons allegations used as
justification were wrong.

"We promised Iraq democratic government. We will
deliver it," he said.

The prime minister suggested that history will
forgive the toppling of Saddam Hussein's
government even if it turns out that Blair and
President George W. Bush were wrong about Iraqi
weapons of mass destruction.

To have hesitated "in the face of this menace
when we should have given leadership ... that
is something that history will not forgive,"
Blair said, to loud applause from House members
and senators.

Blair entered the House chamber to a standing
ovation of lawmakers, senior Bush
administration officials and American military
brass.

The prime minister wryly thanked his audience
for a "warm and generous welcome that's more
than I deserve, and it's more than I'm used to,
quite frankly."

That was a reference to domestic Birtish
politics. Before the war, Blair drew stronger
opposition in the House of Commons to military
action than Bush did in Congress. And like
Bush, he has been hit hard by post-war
controversy over questionable intelligence
about Saddam Hussein's nuclear aims.

Blair's visit to Congress, and then to the White
House for a meeting and joint news conference
with Bush, came amid deepening questions about
the intelligence information both leaders used
in arguing that war against Iraq was
necessary.

The two leaders were the closest of allies on
the war, but the relationship has been strained
in recent weeks over questions about British
claims that Iraq sought to buy uranium in
Africa and the president's use of such an
assertion in his Jan. 28 State of the Union
address.

"Can we be sure that terrorists and weapons of
mass destruction will join together?" Blair
asked. "Let us say one thing. If we are wrong,
we will have destroyed a threat that at its
least is responsible for inhumane carnage and
suffering."

Blair arrived aboard his British Airways jet in
early afternoon and went directly to Capitol
Hill. It was the first leg of a seven-day tour
that will also take him to Asia. He is the
first British prime minister to address a joint
meeting of Congress since Margaret Thatcher in
1985.

His speech also touched on the war on terrorism,
the Middle East peace process, the need to
eradicate poverty, disease and famine in Africa
and the need to promote free trade.

"This terrorism will not be defeated without
peace in the Middle East," he said.

In what appeared to be mild criticism of the
Bush administration, Blair also said it was
important to act in coalitions, not going it
alone. "Let us start preferring a coalition and
acting alone if we have to, not the other way
around," he said.

And, he called on lawmakers not to continue to
bear grudges against European countries who
opposed the war.

"They are our allies. And yours. So don't give
up on Europe," he said.

"When we invade Afghanistan or Iraq, our
responsibility does not end with military
victory," Blair said. "Finishing the fighting
is not finishing the job. We promised Iraq
democratic government. We will deliver it."

"We promised them the chance to use their oil
wells to build prosperity for all their
citizens, not a corrupt elite. We will stay
with these people so in need of help until the
job is done."

"I believe with every fiber of instinct and
conviction I have that we are" right in
deciding to go to war without broad
international support, Blair said.

Ahead of his visit, White House spokesman Scott
McClellan reiterated the recent administration
stance that Bush's mention of the British
Iraq-Africa report should not have been
included in the January address.

Still, he added, "the British have been very
clear that they stand by that statement."

Bush said in his State of the Union address,
"The British government has learned that Saddam
Hussein recently sought significant quantities
of uranium from Africa."

The Iraq-Africa dispute has stoked criticism
against both the Blair and Bush governments,
and Blair's visit helped to further draw
attention.

CIA Director George Tenet has thus far taken the
blame, suggesting he should have objected when
a draft of Bush's speech was circulated to his
agency.