Another "Ceasefire"

So Blair decided to postpone his holiday. The question has to be, why?

Given the "Yo Blair" conversation, it's not like anyone believes he's got any influence on the world stage. Surely he could have found someone else to take orders from Bush whilst he was away. I suppose it's possible that he was ordered to add another dollop of faux sincerity before his summer hols. No-one does faux sincerity like Tony after all.

But I suspect the delay was mostly about stabilising his slightly rocky position within the Labour Party. In his egomaniacal messianic head, he probably doesn't even consider that to be a selfish motive. "As this country's inspirational, influential and irreplaceable leader, it would be a great tragedy for the whole world if I, Anthony Lynton Blair, was forced to step down at this time" he's probably telling himself yet again.

The other day, I said Blair should resign. That was loose language. I meant that the Labour Party needs to force him out. He won't resign; he genuinely believes that there is no alternative. He needs to be pushed.

Anyway, today there was a large protest against Israel's war on Lebanon. Obsolete was there and has the photos to prove it. Tom at Blairwatch was also there and did the maths. It looks like there were easily 50,000 protestors. Wish I could have been there but geography, as usual, got in the way.

And now, there's talk of a draft resolution calling for "the immediate cessation by Hezbollah of all attacks and the immediate cessation by Israel of all offensive military actions". The commitment to even-handedness has gone on holiday already it seems.

This draft, which would allow Israel to continue "defensive" military actions, might be useful if it wasn't for the fact that the Israeli government has consistently claimed that everything it has done in Lebanon has been defensive. The draft is likely to limit the scope for continued Israeli military action almost not at all.

And the Israeli's are to be allowed to continue to occupy areas of Southern Lebanon.

It looks like the US government has got the French to agree to draft which Hezbollah couldn't possibly accept. I'd much prefer to be optimistic, really I would, but it looks like this "ceasefire" is intended to be nothing of the sort.

Tags: News, Politics, Israel, Lebanon, Tony Blair