The world’s powers have decided to engage a former British premier, Tony Blair, as a special Middle East envoy for the Arab-Israeli dispute, and the one question that immediately leaps to mind is: Why?

Does the man possess powers lacking in those who preceded him? Or is Mr. Blair considered a particular favorite in a region where Israelis, Arabs, and Iranians all retain unsavory memories of the British Empire?

The move to hire Mr. Blair by the so-called Quartet — America, the European Union, Russia, and the United Nations — would have been amusing if it were not so obviously misguided.

What’s the man supposed to do?

The Palestinian Arab territories are run by two warring mini-authorities. One of them — spread over the West Bank — is headed by President Abbas of Fatah, a man whose powers barely extend to the porch of his residence in Ramallah. The other, headed by Hamas, is a large collection of gangs, terrorists, and jihadist groups in the Gaza Strip.

Neither side has any constituents who can make a deal, keep one if it were made, or even deliver on any pact with other Arabs, let alone with the Israelis. That has been true for 60 years.

In this circus, Mr. Abbas has been nothing but a convenient distraction. Since his days as a gofer for the unlamented Yasser Arafat, he has never commanded anyone. Like most so-called Palestinian Arab leaders, he is just one of a series of tired, old faces — unable to manage, but unwilling to move on.

So Mr. Blair’s first mission will be to reconcile the Palestinian Arabs — something that the Saudis, the Egyptians, and the Jordanians have been unable to do since 1948, when Britain gave up its mandate to run the Palestinian Arab territories.

But how will Mr. Blair do this? Mr. Abbas has said he would never, ever, sit down with “Hamas murderers and terrorists,” and Hamas emphatically does not wish to see Mr. Abbas.

They do not wish to see Mr. Blair, either. A Hamas spokesman, Fawzi Barhmoum, described Mr. Blair on Tuesday as a “supporter and sympathizer of the Zionist occupation’s terrorism and massacres against our people.” This is Hamas’s standard way of referring to the other entity that it won’t ever speak to — Israel.

For its part, Israel hasn’t the slightest incentive to make a deal with either party: Any agreement that the Palestinian Arabs might accept would involve Israel giving up some territory — land into which more weapons quickly would be poured.

Separately, Prime Minister Olmert’s government — which has made error after error since last summer’s war with Hezbollah — needs to keep a sharp eye on its northern border, where the same old culprits are readying what seems to be another war.

Mr. Blair has nothing special to contribute to this mess. And on a personal note, one wonders why a man who has had such a distinguished career, who re-created the Labor Party and brought unprecedented prosperity to Britain, wants to risk it all in such a useless enterprise. After two decades in government, wouldn’t it be better for Mr. Blair to copy his friend President Clinton and go out and make some real money consulting for business or lecturing on world issues?

Instead, the man who won’t be prime minister anymore seems to want to hang onto his school prefect’s badge: “I think anybody who cares about greater peace and stability in the world knows that a lasting and enduring resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian issue is essential,” Mr. Blair told reporters in London.

So he wants no less than to bring about peace in the world. Talk about hype. Real peace would seem to depend a great deal more on whether Iran acquires an atomic weapon, and whether the Iraq war — about which Mr. Blair knows quite a bit — spreads to Saudi Arabia and other nearby oil producers.

Should the major powers wish to give Mr. Blair some serious employment, they should turn his attention to Lebanon, which is about to explode again due to Syrian influence and mayhem. Attempting to fiddle — again — with the one Middle East problem that has been a constant since 1948 is glaringly artificial and pretentious.

Tony, we love you. Please get a life.