Editorial: Moving Forward

It is many years since the hope expressed by a Palestinian leader that peace talks with Israel would resume soon has sounded anything more than the expression of a longing. It is happening now. When President Mahmoud Abbas said yesterday in Amman, on his way back from Cairo, that the peace process would move forward, he had ground realities on his side. For the first time ever since the conflict began, hard-liners on both sides have realized that, no matter how justified their cause may be, as things now stand, they have no hope of winning peace on their terms.

This unsigned Arab News editorial is very optimistic about the prospects for a lsting peace in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In fact, it seems more sanguine than I am. I think the current peace is still extremely fragile and can be broken by malfeasors on either side. Let’s hope I’m wrong. But the piece is worth reading in its entirety.