The person most damaged so far by George Bush's policy of waging war on the axis of evil is Tony Blair, his unwavering partner. Now, the British leader is about to pay with his job for the war in Iraq and support of Israel.

The suicide bombings on London's Underground failed to sway British public opinion to support the war on terror, but rather reinforced the opinion, especially in Labor and the Liberal-Democratic party, that England is risking its citizens' lives by participating in this war.

Only last month, 27 British soldiers were killed in Afghanistan, and British Muslim members of a terror group are under arrest for planning to blow up airplanes en route to the United States. Even capturing the terrorists did not score points for Blair, but increased the criticism from the left for his joining Bush.

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Barring a last-minute cancellation, Blair will arrive in Israel tomorrow morning, despite the critical revolution rocking his government.

The Labor Party is trying to shorten his term and hand the reins over to a more attractive candidate. Blair's visit to the Middle East at this stage of his career is probably more about the legacy he wants to leave behind. He wants to enhance what has been forgotten - the desire to serve as an honest broker in a dishonest world and try to settle the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.

Blair saw the war in Iraq as a first step on the way to implementing the road map peace plan, and announced this with a decisiveness that did not always please Israel. His support for establishing a Palestinian state did not detract from his courageous stand against the terror attacks in Israel and the world, and he refused to understand terror as an expression of distress and deprivation, as the liberals and the left in Britain and the entire world tend to do. When Tony Blair retires within the next year as he has announced, it is doubtful whether his successor will even want to touch the Middle East conflict.

The practical lesson for Israel from this must be to behave like a small state that cannot afford to lose friends, that cannot dictate global policy and cannot launch all-out attacks. It must try to help other states to help it. The Middle East is a powder keg and Israel must aspire not to ignite it each day anew. A military action, justified as it may be, is no guarantee for restoring normalization to the region, and could make it difficult even for Israel's loyal friends to support it.

Europe is home to 20 million Muslims, a most coveted electoral power. Britain's 300,000 Jews have become no more than a punch bag for the anti-American and anti-Israeli sentiment, and the report on growing anti-Semitism that was presented to Britain's prime minister yesterday shows how much worse the situation has become. At the Labor Party conference in Manchester, Blair's colleagues will castigate him more for his support for Israel in the Lebanon war than for his domestic policies. Israel will have to take note of the anti-Semitic undercurrents in this.