Telling Johnny Arab What's What

With an immediate ceasefire in the Labour party not a particularly realistic prospect, the Vicar of Downing Street has condescended to dispense comfort to the Lebanese prime minister. He committed himself, during his remaining time before his inevitable ascension unto the American lecture circuit, to bringing about something the Guardian is pleased to call "the Middle East peace process", which last time I checked involved turning Palestine from a couple of very large prisons into a lot of smaller ones. This is certainly reassuring. His reverence justified his disinclination to call for an immediate ceasefire when Israel is doing the firing on the grounds that there was "never going to be a cessation without a UN resolution". Since Israel has never violated a UN resolution, the only possible results of calling for a ceasefire without one would have been undesirable ones. Had his reverence lost his nerve, he would have isolated Britain both from the Bush administration and from the other member of the international community. It is to be hoped that the Lebanese people will one day appreciate what dire consequences they might have suffered, had his reverence failed not to call for a ceasefire when not doing so mattered most.