Tel Aviv University honors Blair for effort to forge solutions in Mideast

Middle East envoy Tony Blair, who on Sunday was awarded the Dan David Prize by Tel Aviv University, said he supports economic peace between Israel and the Palestinians, but that it must be accompanied by a political process.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly stated that the first step to a lasting peace needs to be boosting the Palestinian economy.

Speaking at an awards ceremony at Tel Aviv University, Blair said that economic progress would be impossible without a stable Palestinian state and that although Hamas has a military stranglehold on Gaza, most Gazans understand that there can be no progress without diplomacy.

Blair, who recently returned from a three-day visit to Washington, also said that United States President Obama is focused on resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Blair was one of three laureates of the Dan David Prize for 2009, awarded annually by Tel Aviv University.

Each of the laureates will receive a $1 million prize, 10 percent of which is contributed to 20 doctoral and post-doctoral scholarships.

Blair was selected to receive the prize in leadership for what the judges had previously described as "his exceptional leadership and steadfast determination in helping to engineer agreements and forge lasting solutions to areas in conflict."

The three prizes are divided into past, present and future - with the prize in astrophysics going to the first category, Blair's leadership prize in the "present" category and the prize in public health falling into the "future."