The title of the article that Jidoe proposes is “In the Mideast, a step back”. Step back from where? Was it ever a step forward? Let us position ourselves on that moment when out of altruism, the US, Russia, the EU and the UN get together to make the roadmap for peace. A summary of the three stages or steps of the roadmap can be found at
http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/rls/22520.htm.

Step 1: Ending Terror and Violence, Normalizing Palestinian Life, and Building Palestinian Institutions. This step has not happen, neither the violence from one and the other side has finished, neither the Palestinian life has improved.

Abbas was all right a “more pragmatic negotiating partner” as “most reasonable people have recognized”. The Palestinian Authority was on the corner of the ring being hit over an over and Abbas kept the mouth shut at each hit. Palestinians have not only voted Abbas out of power, in my opinion they have voted against this barren, unsatisfying, unsuccessful diplomacy. Diplomacy has not worked well for the Palestinians in the last years: they have not got any territories back (the Gaza plot was just a joke), their standard of living has got deteriorated and instead Israel has become stronger. What will Hamas strategy be? Nobody knows, we are just conjecturing. However, I believe most Palestinian people think that there is nothing to lose in trying something else.

The emphasis made over the fact that Hamas was born to destroy Israel is just pure political rhetoric like all the politics around the Palestine-Israel conflict. The sentence roadmap for peace keeps resonating in everybody’s words when talking about Hamas. The next political move of the West is to make Hamas as the responsible for the collapse of their little cute peace roadmap, and so save face.

In reality, neither Hamas, nor Palestine has the power to destroy Israel and will do not get into an open war with Israel for obvious reasons. So the motto “destroy Israel” is just pure fanfare. Perhaps Hamas has to learn a bit more about rhetoric. A good example of rhetoric can be found in:

On the 24th of January, the current Israeli Prime Minister Olmert said that Israel cannot exist without control over Jerusalem. In only one sentence he destroyed the whole roadmap for peace, as Jerusalem is one of the key factors in the conflict. He did not say “we are going to kick the ass of the Palestinians from Jerusalem who have lived here for centuries, and impose our law and perhaps put some little illegal wall around the areas that we like”. So although the result will be the destruction of the roadmap for peace nobody is pointing at him.

For more detail refer to:
http://www.globalsecurity.org/milita...0124-voa03.htm

Personally I do not expect much positive development towards a fair solution of the conflict on the following years… but hey! In the land of so many Gods, there is always a place for faith.

Salimar