Appointment in Bethlehem

By Richard Stengel, Managing Editor

After passing through the Israeli wall separating Jerusalem from the West Bank, you're quickly in historic Bethlehem, a small but vibrant city that feels biblical and modern at the same time. The main road is twisted and dusty, and the handsome buildings of white Jerusalem stone hold both fruit markets and Internet bars. The presumed birthplace of King David and Jesus of Nazareth, a flash point in the continuing and never-ending struggle between Israel and the Palestinians, and a city with an increasingly restive Muslim majority, Bethlehem was the perfect place to sit down and talk with Tony Blair about his new interfaith initiative and his personal odyssey of faith.

The night before our main interview, Michael Elliott, editor of our international editions, and I chatted with Blair at a party for the Palestine Investment Conference, which furnishes the opening scene of Mike's revealing and insightful portrait of Blair in this week's issue. During our interview the next day, Blair, who has been working as the special envoy to the Middle East of the U.S.-Russia-European Union-U.N. "Quartet" of powers, was eloquent in arguing why globalization has made the need for an interfaith dialogue more important than ever. At the same time, for someone who is starting a global interfaith initiative and who is deeply religious, he is curiously reticent in talking about his own faith. As Mike points out, this is a characteristic of British politicians, not American ones. You can watch highlights of our interview with Blair at time.com/blairvideo

Mike, who was an undergraduate at Oxford shortly before Blair, has been covering and writing about the former Prime Minister since 1984, when Blair was a young Labour member of the House of Commons. He has long been fascinated by the fact that Blair was known to be religious, something Mike says is rare in what he calls Britain's "aggressively secular society." Mike grew up in an intensely religious family in the suburbs of Liverpool--his father was on the national council of the Baptist church--and he says, "I think that probably gave me some sympathy for the way in which Blair has very openly wrestled with the role of faith in the public square."

Richard Stengel, MANAGING EDITOR

On Sunday, June 1, you can see Tony Blair on our sister network cnn as the first guest on the new international-affairs show Fareed Zakaria--gps, airing at 1 p.m. E.T. and also around the world on cnn International