'Unity Is the Answer'.(the international envoy to the Middle East, Tony Blair, on the fighting in Gaza)

Tony Blair, now international envoy to the Middle East, on how to stop the fighting in Gaza.

Tony Blair was warned. when the former British prime minister left office in June 2007, plenty of friends and colleagues cautioned that plunging into Middle East peacemaking would be a thankless task. As envoy for the Quartet--the United States, the United Nations, the European Union and Russia--Blair has focused primarily on economic development in the Palestinian territories. Now, with war raging, the former prime minister is watching parts of Gaza reduced to rubble. He spoke by phone with NEWSWEEK's Kevin Peraino. Excerpts:

PERAINO: How seriously will the destruction in Gaza set back your efforts at development?

BLAIR: It's been very difficult for the past year to do much in Gaza in economic development anyway, frankly. It's a massive task of reconstruction--humanitarian, economic--and we'll have to handle that at the appropriate time with an awful lot of support from the international community.

The U.N. and the Red Cross have been increasingly critical of this operation. Is Israel doing enough to prevent civilian deaths in Gaza?

I'm not there on the ground. But I know that the U.N. is deeply concerned, and so is the international community. So they've got to do everything they can to avoid civilian casualties. That's their duty. But let's be honest with ourselves. The only thing that will stop innocent civilians from being killed is to put a stop to the problem. Not merely the short-term problem of getting the action in Gaza stopped, but the long-term problem, which is division on the Palestinian side--between Gaza and the West Bank.

Is a Palestinian unity government the solution?