Some good news from the ME (maybe, possibly, hopefully...)Follow

Hamas and Fatah have announced that they will form a coalition government based on an implicit recognition of Israel's right to exist.

Linky.



This would be a great opportunity to get everyone on both sides talking again, and with some political effort from the US/EU maybe even a viable peace process.

If only...

In fairness to them, Hamas haven't done a single suicide bombing since they were elected.

And it was those very suicide-bombings that were meant to be the main obstacle to peace.

So now that they have stopped, and are prepared to recognise Israel, what are the obstacles for a Palestinian state? Why aren't Bush/Blair/Chirac/Omert moving heaven and earth to make it happen?


Yes, it was a joke to put Chirac amongst them

Yeah, but it was the same with the IRA. What convinced them to (partially) put down their weapons was the promise of shared government. Now that they have more tog ain through the political process than through violence, they use the political process, and everyone is better off because of it.

It's the same for Hamas. Once they understand that political power is a more plausible ways of achieving a Palestinian State than using suicide-bombers, then we will have made a huge step forward.