THE Checkpoints, terminals and daunting grey pillboxes of Tarkumiya near the West Bank city of Hebron are a long way from Downing Street.
But now they are part of Tony Blair's territory as he weighs how to balance between freedom of movement for Palestinians and deference to Israeli security concerns in his job as the international community's Middle East envoy.
While keeping a low
media profile and all but airbrushed out of British politics, Mr Blair has recently been zooming in on Palestinian living conditions in the West Bank, whose improvement is seen as vital to gaining support for reviving peace talks that collapsed with the eruption of the Palestinian uprising seven years ago.
During his latest foray into the field, Mr Blair was greeted by the Israelis with bagels, cookies and spin at an army tent on Wednesday. His shirtsleeves rolled up, Mr Blair listened as a senior officer pointed to a map of the West Bank and explained how "back to back" trucking at inspection terminals has been designed to ensure a smooth flow of Palestinian commerce.
"We have six crossing points for goods, giving us an opportunity to move 2,500 trucks a day" between Israel and the West Bank, the officer told Mr Blair. "There will be two inspection shifts. We've bought five scanners to scan containers."
Mr Blair interrupted with a question: Why are goods from industrial parks in the West Bank not searched at the production site rather than have to go through the queue for security inspections at the new terminals. "Why not take them straight through?" he asked.
A Blair spokesman says he relishes the micro aspect of his new role. "As prime minister he would come for a couple of days, a couple of times a year. He dealt with things in headline terms. But now he can give it the time and really get into the details and make suggestions on how to move things forward."
Mr Blair is also gaining international financial backing for short and medium-term projects whose stated purpose is to boost support for Palestinian moderates in the West Bank such as president Mahmoud Abbas and prime minister Salam Fayyad against the challenge of Hamas, the Islamic Resistance Movement.
In political terms, Mr Blair endorses the Israeli view that the Palestinians need grooming before they are ready for statehood.
"The American focus is the political talks that take place between Abbas and Olmert. I am focusing on the Palestinian capacities. There is a need for a Palestinain plan for the establishment of a state and this is not a mere land to establish a state on, there are rules for ruling and institutions and an appropriate security force and an education system and social security," he told the Palestinian newspaper al-Quds this week.
Palestinian critics of Mr Blair argue that this stance facilitates Israeli efforts to perpetuate the occupation and continue the expansion of settlements, thereby negating the possibility of a viable Palestinian state. Israeli settlements encompass 40 per cent of the West Bank
Israeli officials are satisfied with Mr Blair's mission thus far and say he is making an important contribution in the run-up to the US sponsored peace conference in Annapolis, Maryland in November.
"Day-to-day life is no less important than the political discussions," said foreign ministry spokesman Mark Regev.
"If there are only photo ops and declarations, but the Palestinians don't feel improvement in their quality of life this will create frustrations, dissonance and cyni-cism."
From the Tarkumiya terminal, Mr Blair headed to the nearby city of Hebron, for a meeting with mayor Khaled Osaily. Mr Osaily asked Mr Blair to intervene with the Israelis to ease movement strictures in the area. "He didn't promise us anything, he said he has to work on this," Mr Osaily said.
"We explained to him about our economic situation and he asked us to prepare a document of proposals that he could work on," he said.
Mr Osaily said the two men also discussed the mood of Palestinians in the run-up to the US sponsored Middle East peace conference in November.
He said: "I told Blair that people will never believe anything before change happens on the ground.
"They are frustrated and they want to see tangible change."
PEACE TALKS DENIED
PALESTINIAN President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction ruled out talks with Hamas yesterday as Israel warned any such dialogue with the Islamists could "torpedo" a peace deal with the Jewish state.
Palestinian sources said members of Hamas and Fatah had discussed holding peace talks, but Fatah leaders said they had not backed any meeting and rejected dialogue with Hamas unless it cedes control of the Gaza Strip, which it seized in fighting with Abbas's forces in June.
"What happened in Gaza was a military coup against legitimacy and against democracy," said Abdallah Franji, a member of secular Fatah's central committee. "If they retreat then we can talk. Now we cannot."
Israel is trying to bolster Abbas and sideline the Islamist group.
Israel's Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev said: "We are concerned that if you allow this extreme organisation, which is opposed to reconciliation, back to centre stage you will in fact torpedo any chance of moving forward."
