Britain's moral authority in the escalating crisis in the Middle East is being undermined by its close relationship with the US, a former aide to Prime Minister Tony Blair said yesterday. Blair's refusal to call for a ceasefire between Israel and the Shi'ite Muslim militia Hizbollah is indefensible, according to Stephen Wall who until last year was the prime minister's European adviser.Writing in The New Statesman magazine, Wall says: "Our government and that of the US have weasel-worded their way through this tragedy. Why? Tony Blair would argue that words of condemnation come cheap and that the job of a leader is to forego the glib sound bite if, by grabbing a headline at home, you write yourself out of the script where it matters most - in this case, in Israel and the US." Wall says that though he is sure Blair is urging US President George W Bush to act in private, and is right to sympathise with Israel's plight, "the overriding reason for Britain's loss of moral authority is Blair's conviction that he has to hitch the UK to the chariot of the US President."
"Could the prime minister really not speak up for the simple proposition that the slaughter of innocent people in Lebanon, the destruction of their country and the ruin of half a million lives were wrong and should stop immediately? 'What kind of ceasefire?' Blair asks. One that stopped the horror, even for 24 hours, would be a start. Is it the conviction of our government that we should leave it to George W Bush to set the bearings of our moral compass?"