Tony Blair, the former British prime minister, the new Middle East peace envoy for the group known as the Quartet, is on a doomed mission.

The Quartet, made up of the United States, the European Union, the United Nations and Russia, ostensibly sent Blair to the region to aid in improving the infrastructure, the economy and government operations in the West Bank as the first step in establishing the mythic Palestinian state.

But based on Blair's primary message during his visit to Jerusalem last week, the Quartet is courting diplomatic disaster. Blair, following the dictates of President Bush, will not talk with Hamas, the militant Islamic group now in control of the Gaza Strip after it ousted Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and his secular Fatah Party.

Although the two Palestinian population centers are now both diplomatically and geographically split, Blair hypocritically claims that he is working for the good of all Palestinians and the region as a whole.

In a veiled rejection of Hamas, Blair said: "There is a sense that we can regain momentum. That's the crucial thing. And if we are able to regain that momentum, then a whole lot of things become possible, not least the fact that those people of peace can then feel that the force is with them and not with those who want conflict."

Translation: "Those people of peace" are Abbas and Fatah, who apparently can tolerate Israeli occupation and continued construction of illegal settlements on Palestinian land.

Blair is foolishly demonizing Hamas. He will fail because he intends to blow off Hamas, which is an integral part of Palestinian aspirations for an independent state.

Last week, in response to a meeting between representatives of the group of 22 Arab nations with Israelis in Jerusalem, Mouin Rabbani, a senior Middle East analyst with the International Crisis Group in Amman, Jordan, pointed out a reality that seems to elude the Quartet and Israel: "There is a potentially embarrassing situation where senior Arab diplomats are meeting with Israel officials but don't meet with Hamas."

Blair and his Quartet superiors are so hell-bent on their wrongheaded crusade that they even are ignoring the wisdom of their friends and fellow insiders.

Former U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said during a recent interview that the international leaders should talk with Hamas: "I don't think you can just cast (Hamas) into outer darkness and try to find a solution to the problems of the region without taking into account the standing that Hamas has in the Palestinian community."

And none other than Daniel Levy, a former Israeli peace negotiator and currently director of the Prospects for Peace Initiative at the Century Foundation in Washington, said recently that Blair must talk with Hamas just as he talked with extremists in resolving the conflict in Northern Ireland.

"For any process to have sustainability, legitimacy and to guarantee security," Levy said, "it will have to be inclusive, not divisive, and to bring in Hamas over time. ... Blair, with his Northern Ireland experience, may understand this better than most."

Perhaps Blair does understand peacemaking better than most. Unfortunately, by snubbing Hamas, he has abandoned his instincts for peace in order to remain an instrument of Bush's support of Israel, many of which the Hague Tribunal has deemed illegal.

— Bill Maxwell writes for the St. Petersburg Times.