The Fanonite

I don’t know where New Labour rag, the Guardian, finds the nitwits who write headlines for its news articles. So here we have a headline, “Mixed reaction in Middle East as Blair makes debut as envoy“, for an article reporting the enthusiastic embrace of the poodle by one party, whereas the other — the Arabs — unanimously disapproves. That is not a mixed reaction, it is a clearcut affirmation of a decidedly partisan choice from both parties to the conflict. Imagine a headline, ‘Mixed reaction in Europe as Nazi Germany occupies France’: after all, all German’s embraced the move, whereas everyone else disapproved.

I am  not sure what is so mixed about the following reactions:

“George Bush wanted to reward Blair for his hostility to the Arabs,” said Galal Nassar in Egypt’s Al-Ahram Weekly. “In backing Bush’s nominee the Quartet has endorsed a disastrous choice.” Columnist Rami Khouri wrote in Beirut’s Daily Star: “If there is an award for the combined negative credibility of an institution plus an individual, the Quartet and Blair should be its first recipients. Appointing Tony Blair as special envoy for Arab-Israeli peace is something like appointing the Emperor Nero to be the chief fireman of Rome.”