Martin Indyk has been full of hope regarding the latest Mid East talks but Martin Indyk has always been an optimist - even when he was Ambassador in Israel. He is a nice guy however, which covers a multitude of sins, and he's not proud, which covers even more.
Hamas told the NCF in Gaza last week they feared there would be no way to stop more violence. The tragic killings in the West Bank today are just the beginning, though the reason for the timing is the same old tit for tat revenge for an assisnation by Israel we are so used to. See: http://middleeastanalyst.com/2010/08/30/israel-assassinates-another-hamas-commander/
Sadly in any case this peace process is conducted by the same team of dinosaurs as all the others:
http://ncfmepp.blogspot.com/2010/08/palestinian-delegation-to-washington.html#links
So what hope?
Well there would be hope if the Obama team were committed to steamrollering it through with Israel. The German prisoner swop negotiators have been called back in by Israel which is positive (the release of Barghouti into the West bank being a vital pre-cursor to a credible peace). But they are not going to release him. Not in the face of Hamas violence.
So we are doomed. Peace is inevitable. Just not yet. The whole point (from Israel's perspective) of doing this now was to distract it's population from noticing that they were doing nothing on Iran whilst the nuclear plant comes on line. In this Netanyahu has succeeded. What a consummate genius. And the Hamas violence will mean he can squirm out of the settlement freeze if he wishes (though he may be a shrewd enough statesman to keep it going in some form).
Such times.
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