I heard he also won the Montgomery Burns Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Excellence.

unbelievable!
not forgetting the award comes from a university in Tel Aviv,
how appropriate that whilst civilians of Gaza are being murdered, where be our fabulous Peace envoy for the region, working hard to achieve peace, well no not quite, he is receiving an award from his warmongering partner G.W.Bush, shows how far removed the powers that be are from reality.

I enjoyed Omri's quip and don't see what Blair has done in this capacity in any very hopeful sense, but I don't see that he's done anything harmful either.

Until something more decisive occurs - which seems unlikely within an Obama, Clinton, Rice, Power, et al. regime - Blair and what he has served in his more recent capacity seems benign - not terribly positive or constructive, but not a destructive influence either, at least not that I've been able to apprehend. Arguably, a benign or neutral influence in the current environment, one that does not cede further ground still, is something of an achievement itself.

The west consists of democratic republics, at least formally so, and until an "army of Davids" awakens within that wider demos there are far worse persons who could wield influence than Blair.

(And since I'm borrowing Glenn Reynolds' archtype, a better archtype still would be to conceive of an army of Nehemiahs, but that too is too hopeful at this present point. Too many are content and asleep and in the west that will inevitably have decisive effect.)

...and Simon's idiotic blather shows that he, quite possibly, never encountered reality. Must be a Brit.

LOL@Omri. Of course what they are doing in a situation like this is giving the award to one famous person "of note" for marketing purposes. It's publicity. Otherwise no one would pay attention at all to the other people who perhaps actually deserve something. Nevertheless...

what they are doing in a situation like this is giving the award to one famous person "of note" for marketing purposes

kissing ass.

One of these days people might figure out that peace and harmony will come from the bottom up, from within peoples' hearts and minds, it can't be imposed particularly when there's been generations and generations of pain and incitement.

It's especially important to stop fomenting hatred. People who spread evil rumors about "the other" have a hand in conflicts around the world but in this one it's particularly easy to see. It isn't just between Israel and the Arabs it's visible between Muslim and Christian factions, clans, tribes, ethnic groups - and it's spread over an enormous region including huge swathes of Africa.

I think for starters the UN should make it a first order of business to look closely at the role propaganda and fear have played in the Arab/Israeli conflict going back to the 19th century (we have to start somewhere right?)

Fear and hatred and lies about Jews and especially Jews who want to defend themselves and be self-determining are ongoing and they become self-fulfilling prophecies in the context of the modern Middle East.

It is preached, "The Jews/Zionists are evil. We must attack them. Let us attack them! Lo! The Jews have fought back! They have killed some of us! They must be evil! We must attack some more!"

and so forth ad infinitum and it doesn't help that a lot of Jews are now terrified of Arabs even within Israel just as Arabs have learned to hate Jews and Israelis.

And, many Jews (this includes people here) never were particularly sensitive to Arab and other Middle Eastern cultures even though we come from there and many Jewish communities have never lived anyplace but the Middle East. It's a shame because there is much that is wonderful to be learned and shared with one another.

If somebody wants to earn these big prizes he/she will start with the idea that peace will emerge when people stop reflexively hating and fearing their neighbors. Land and border disputes become relatively easy to sort out once "the other" isn't seen as a disease.

And, big media, NGO, political, religious and government organizations that promote fear and loathing should be exposed for what they are - hate-mongers who promote violence. The person who has the guts to say these things in the newspapers and at the UN will have earned the prize.

Unfortunately little people who see it don't seem to count.

We just count our dead and mourn our losses, and live in dread of the next bloody conflict.

"And, big media, NGO, political, religious and government organizations that promote fear and loathing should be exposed for what they are - hate-mongers who promote violence. The person who has the guts to say these things in the newspapers and at the UN will have earned the prize."

Unfortunately, Sophia, the people who do say these things are denounced as haters, bigots, islamaphobes, and other assorted horrors. And I realize that your looking to the UN for a positive contribution is most likely wishful thinking. Nevertheless, it's a good point.

Why are people who stand up against hatred considered "Islamophobic"?

Or "right wing"? Please note "right wing" is considered a real crime on the left, so calling a person "right wing" basically means you don't have to argue the issues.

What a cop-out.

I don't get it. I'm pretty far left myself AND I think racism is deplorable including antisemitism.

Yet, as "g" says, people who even discuss antisemitism are often accused of being Islamophobic as though there were any connection, it's totally absurd.

Think about it. How does arguing against hatred of Jews = hatred of Muslims? It's bizarre yet I've seen this myself. It really makes absolutely no sense.

In fact, real anti-racists (left OR right) will argue against stereotyping Muslims, Jews, Israelis, Arabs, Palestinians or any other group of people.

I am finding that real anti-racists are rare.

Indeed I get into arguments lately with folks who stereotype Palestinians and other Muslims and Arabs but the worst are the so-called "progressives" who hang out on openly antisemitic websites.

Their hypocrisy is astonishing. They incite violence by their very attitudes then blame Israel for standing in the way of peace, and when confronted with lists of antisemitic incidents around the world will declare the Jews are being hysterical or the statistics are lying. The wriggling people will do to try and get Chavez or Ahmadijenad or appalling media or plays like "Seven Jewish Children" off the hook are amazing.

Similarly in spite of Israel's history of fighting the British Empire, of being damaged by imperialism of various sorts, they will portray Israel as "colonialist/imperialist" as though that is a supreme evil even if it were entirely true - and ignore the human beings who live there or their often tragic histories let alone am Yisroel's ancient ties to the land of Israel.

Moreover there is apparently no ability to look at a map of the world over time and see that people move, they move around to save their lives, it is totally natural for people to migrate - and until very recently empires were more common than states - so why is Israel alone bearing the burden of "colonialism/imperialism"?

Wierdly, there is apparently no ability to connect the dots between antisemitism in Europe or the Middle East, the terrorist attacks and wars against Israel and events like the wars against Hezbollah and Hamas - which didn't exactly occur in a vacuum did they - so people excuse their own antisemitism by blaming it on casualties in Gaza.

Am I missing something?

Well I have news. There is nothing "progressive" or rational or fair about hatred and distorting reality isn't going to create a better future for anybody.

I don't know why this should come as news from the Delphic Oracle but there are an awful lot of orphaned leftists and liberals these days, probably a lot of antifascists on the right as well, people who are shocked and saddened by the fact that our respective wings of the political spectrum are only selectively antiracist and find nothing wrong with supporting people whose agenda includes the genocide of Jews as well as the oppression of women, gays, dissenters or others who are somehow unacceptably different.

Something is really wrong with this picture.

So yeah - I'm waiting for somebody "important" to get up and say so.

And I really would like to believe in the UN. I grew up thinking the UN represented hope for the future, a way of avoiding holocausts and wars, a path to understanding between the nations of the world.

I grew up thinking the same of academia.

Am I waiting for Godot? Is anybody out there listening?

I think for starters the UN should make it a first order of business to look closely at the role propaganda and fear have played in the Arab/Israeli conflict going back to the 19th century (we have to start somewhere right?)

Sophia,
For starters the UN itself has to be cleaned up. Just look at who controls its groups on Racism, Human Rights etc.
The UN has become a mockery of the original intent. It is an exercise in hypocrisy with the a blatant example being UNWRA.
Go back and read the resolutions of the 70s and get an idea of how perverted they are.

The only way to clean up the UN would be to kick out most of its members. As evidenced by the "Human Rights" infrastructure there, all efforts at reform are doomed to failure. The results will always reflect the character and values of the states that make up the UN. Most of them don't share our values. Sure, they can put on a suit and tie, make a speech, use technology...but it's all skin deep. We don't all belong at the same table. Can we just get rid of it? In a practical sense, no. The best we can do is contain the damage that body does and try to cycle down people's respect for it by educating them to the realities (I mean the government should be subtly doing this).