Blair Joins Bush in Backing Israeli Proposal

Two days after backing Israel’s plan to pull out of the Gaza Strip but keep key West Bank settlements, President Bush won a measure of support Friday for the controversial move from visiting British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Braving derision back home, Blair declared that the proposal offered opportunities for progress toward peace in the Mideast.

“I think we should seize them,” Blair said, flanking Bush at the White House.

British backing was an important diplomatic victory for Bush, who in a fundamental shift threw his support to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s “disengagement” plan. But unlike Bush, Blair was silent on some of the most contentious elements of the plan -- such as Sharon’s intention to maintain the West Bank settlements and refuse Palestinian refugees the right to return to Israel.

And it was increasingly clear within Britain that Blair’s support for Bush on Israel, as on Iraq, would come at a political cost.

Blair sought to emphasize Friday that the Bush move, although appearing to shut Palestinians out of the process, would not foreclose the “road map” peace plan, which calls for mutual concessions and final negotiations.

“What have people been asking for years? They’ve been asking for Israelis to withdraw from the occupied territories,” Blair said. “This is not the final end of it.... This is not a unilateral attempt to impose a settlement.”

The British prime minister urged the so-called quartet that had sponsored the road map -- the United States, the United Nations, the European Union and Russia -- to be ready to help the Palestinians build their capabilities as an independent state, including in the area of security.

At the same time, Blair appeared more measured in his enthusiasm than Bush, who called the Sharon plan a “fantastic opportunity.” Blair said some of the strong negative reactions to the U.S. and Israeli moves -- particularly among Arab states -- were “expected and natural.”

But even before Blair arrived in Washington, politicians and other observers in Britain said Bush’s move had embarrassed the prime minister, who had pushed Bush to launch the road map in return for British support on the war in Iraq.

“George Bush has just unplugged the road map from its life support apparatus,” former British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook wrote in the Independent newspaper. He “could not have delivered a worse snub to Tony Blair on the eve of their meeting.”

Others said Blair’s vote of support for Bush would likely reinforce the feeling among some Blair critics that the British prime minister is simply Bush’s “poodle.”

Blair’s political risk on the issue was further underscored as the European Union’s senior official criticized the initiative.

Irish Foreign Minister Brian Cowen, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency, told Israel it needs to make a deal with the Palestinians, not its allies in Washington.

“To achieve lasting peace and security, Israel still has to reach agreement with the Palestinian people,” Cowen said. “It remains the case that Israel has to make peace with its enemies, not its friends.”

Friday’s meeting between Bush and Blair brought renewed suggestions in Britain that Blair has not gotten enough in return for his commitment of troops and money to the Iraq mission.

Blair “is committed to this president, and he can’t just walk away,” said Simon Serfaty, director of the Europe program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. “He put the best face he could on the situation. But he’s not a happy camper.”

But if the appearance was difficult for Blair, it was valuable for Bush, who wants to demonstrate to Americans that he has support abroad for his foreign policy, Serfaty said.

“The United Kingdom has become Bush’s indispensable partner,” Serfaty said.

Foreign Secretary Jack Straw seemed to put some distance between the White House position and Britain’s, emphasizing that in the end, a settlement must be reached through negotiation by all parties.

“All sides -- Israel, the Palestinians and the international community -- have always accepted that at the end of the final status negotiations there will have to be compromises on each side,” he said.

Times staff writer John Daniszewski in London contributed to this report.