T ony Blair is expected to travel to the Middle East soon on his first working trip as a post-prime ministerial peacemaker. His appointment as the special envoy of the Quartet - the US, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations - produced something unprecedented for the Middle East: a consensus. Pundits were united in their response: why would anyone, let alone the parties to the world's most intract-able conflict, listen to the Poodle?

Observers in the region rushed to label Mr Blair a "loser", a "lapdog", a "warmonger" and an "on-off button controlled by the White House". British commentators, grown weary of their former darling, thought the "preposterous" arrangement was simply a case of "jobs for the boys". One famous correspondent was "overwhelmed that this vain, deceitful man, this proven liar, a trumped-up lawyer who has the blood of thousands of Arab men, women and children on his hands, is really contemplating being 'our' Middle East envoy".