Had this gone wrong, the headlines would have been:
IAF downed an aircraft carrying suspected terrorists. I think Mr. Blair now has a taste of what it is to be a civilian without government travel security..perhaps he should travel during the night like his good friend!

prem kitaasa, Edmonton, Canada

Does anyone know their history lessons? Israel and Palestine as well as the rest of the Middle East have been around longer than any of the rest of us. They are well known in a book called "The Bible". Oh, factual evidence? The Israelis won a war in 6days.How did they do that? Read and find out

Sheila E. Warwick, Mathews,VA, U.S.A.

Yes we are brain washed, so much so that before very much longer we are going to be looking at ww3. Why are we putting up with stupid politicians doing basicly the oposite of what we want them to do. Why are we putting up with stupid high prices for petrol and diesel and gas. Cos we let it happen !

joe benet, Minlaton,

The pilot should be sacked. His blithe disregard for his passenger's safety and flight rules, especially in such politically-charged airspace is nothing less than criminal.

Mark, London,

wow that's scary, but once again Israeli military proved to be very responsible under such circumstances.

Nelson, Texas

Nelson , Fort Worth , USA

Why does the shooting of innocent unarmed Palestinian civilians, just protesting about the closure of borders, get mentioned in the very last paragraph of this article? There was an uproar about the Chinese doing the same to Tibetan protestors. We are so brainwashed by US and Israeli propaganda.

Katherine, Sydney, Australia

'in the Palestinian city of Bethlehem.'

This is news to me. Where exactly is the Palestinian State?

Mr Hider is obviously somewhat confused here.

Wake up !

Jeffrey Epstein, London,

Mr. Blair does not deserve to be shot down by his partners in crime.

Surely there must be a more fitting fate in store for someone who contributed to the deaths of millions of innocent civilians.

Anthony Blare, London,

I blame al qaeda.

jayil, london, uk

Thanks for the info R Levi...so all those missiles that kill arab children are aimed are they?

Keith, London,

"No wonder the Israelis were on high alert, against terrorists so ruthless they knocked down a wall so they could get food and fuel for their families."

The Palestinians never seem to have much trouble getting AK-47s or explosives to murder unarmed civilians. Why do they have problems getting food?

Joe Stillwell, Singapore, Singapore

How remarkably dumb of the Blair's pilot. Bet he looses his job!

mike b, Columbia, sc, usa

Some people have objected to me using the word intruding aircraft since the flights were all domestic on 9/11. Fair enough, delete the word intruding, although had they been ready for intruders they would have handled 9/11 planes better. Actually the problem is more in the security at airports. US security personnel try to find out what’s in the passenger’s bag, Israeli security personnel through interviews try to find out what is in his head.

Mladen Andrijasevic , Be'er Sheva , Israel

And who, exactly, was paying for this private jet? not the British taxpayer, by any chance?

Sarah, London,

Not much of a story. Fighter jets have been scrambled in the UK in the past when there have been concerns about aircraft.

AB, London,

Bless her she doesn't have time to do this but to secure peace in that part of the world can be achieved by Queen Elizabeth, or better still for good health ask to send Prince Charles. These leaders are highly respected in all parts of the world and haven't any oppinions, or can they be bought.

Richard Irwin, Bristol, UK

Everyone in the intelligence community knows that 7/7 and Madrid were Mossad operations. And Blair was too afraid to say a word. This was an "in your face" message telling Blair to get Brown in line on Iran

Margaret, Edinburgh, UK

Flying into Israel from Egypt and not responding to urgent messages? Unless the pilot had a prior agreement with the Israelis, he would have put lives in danger and deserve to be severely punished.

Miland Joshi, Birmingham,

Yawn - these things happen all the time. It is clear that either there was a technical fault or Mr Blair's pilot failed to follow proper procedure. "Dog bites man". The Israeli response was faultless and nobody was harmed.

David, Leeds,

Oil at £135 a barrel, and with Arabias oil production up by 300k barrels aday, that means increased sales of $40.5 Million per day. Surely the Arabs could help their so called 'Muslim Brothers' ... no but wait. The Arabs are not really in control of the Oil Reserves ... are they?

A.J, London, UK

Can we send Brown, Blears et al for a cheap Bank Holiday weekend to Eilat? C'mon Gordon, it wil only rain and be gloomier than your permanent expression in your homeland. On second thoughts, as a sane Englisman, I want you to stay alive and well so you can be hammered by the Tories.

Niels larsen, Masham, England

Rob, the report missed saying that militants armed with weapons and antitank missiles were scattered in the crowd of demonstrators. The IDF said the militants opened fire a number of times from within the crowd, as always cynically using civilians as a shield.

Nigel, London,

9/11 is a completely different scenario... New York is hardly a wasr zone, and there's huge gap between a hijacked commercial airplane with hostages and an unmarked civilian plane. Were your relative on that plane, would you have wanted it shot out of the air? No one can control everything.

Erikai, Denver, USA

@Mladen Andrijasevic. Um, the aircraft used in the 9/11 attacks were already in US airspace when they took off. Not really the same situation, is it?

gianni, New York, USA

"Israeli forces have been on high alert for threats from the Sinai region since Hamas knocked down a wall..."

That really says it all. No wonder the Israelis were on high alert, against terrorists so ruthless they knocked down a wall so they could get food and fuel for their families.

Tom Welsh, Basingstoke,

To: Mladen Andrijasevic , Be'er Sheva , Israel
Regarding your comment about preventing 9/11deaths Perhaps you're not aware that the USA didn't have secure air space rules in the same degree as Israel. By the time the planes had crossed into forbidden zones they were already over cities.

Jill, Pittsburgh, PA, USA

Apparently Mladen needs a history lesson. There were no 'intruding' aircraft on 9/11 - all four planes were domestic flights, originating from within the US. Quite a different scenario than the one discussed in this story. Amazing how the revisionists are at work - and mostly go unchallenged.

Jon, Denver, CO, USA

If the IAF fighters had destroyed the private jet, can you imagine the outcry? Israel would have been blamed yet again for being 'aggressive', and the political fallout would have been horrendous. How on earth did a plane enter the world's most dangerous airspace and fail to respond to AT control?

Dr. Denis MacEoin, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK

Both the current peace (s/b piece) talks and the call for investment are big jokes but they fool nobody. Who in their right mind will put a penny under the existing strangulation that the west bank and gaza suffer? Sorry for Blair, he's so full of good intentions!

John, CHICAGO, USA

If only the American F-15 pilots were as ready to intercept any intruding aircraft within 3 minutes as the Israeli apparently are, some of the deaths of 9/11 could have been prevented.

Mladen Andrijasevic , Be'er Sheva , Israel

Can't Gordon get anything right?

Bob, Harrow, England

British schools told not to mention the holocaust, Its OK to clone human animal hybrids. Is this just the Labour party's doing or has the word "Great" been erased from Great Britain?

gavan duffy, Brisbane, Australia

Israelis can be counted on. Blair's plane should have filed a flight plan and contacted traffic control. That is normal procedure.

R. Levi, Yafo,

God, must have had a hand in this, so he can go on to deliver to the Middle East, a lasting "PEACE"

g.mc.arder, Belfast & Drogheda, N.Ireland/Ireland

How can the Israeli's justify shooting at demonstrators? Surely this is just as wrong as firing rockets?

Rob, London,

Blair has visited the wrong venue (Bethlehem), to jump-start the Palestinian economy. Riyadh should be his destination. The OPEC cartel must be amassing trillions of dollars, at the current volume and price of oil. Surely, these rich, greedy Sheikhs must have a spare billion for their Arab brothers!

Durham, Auckland, NZ