THE ACCELERATION OF THE NEWS CYCLE AND THE DECELERATION OF THOUGHT

Peace plan gets second wind: After violent week, Israel and Palestinians try for a ceasefire and a power shift in Gaza (Stewart Bell, 6/16/03, National Post)

Urged on by world leaders trying to salvage the U.S.-backed peace plan, Israeli and Palestinian officials met yesterday to broker a ceasefire but Hamas vowed to continue its fight and Israel said it would not stop targeting terrorists it considers "ticking bombs."

As sporadic violence continued, the two sides met to discuss a deal that would see Israeli forces pull out of northern Gaza if the Palestinian Authority agrees to take over and tackle radical groups such as Hamas that oppose any peace settlement.

The talks followed a week of violence that left more than 50 people dead in a series of Palestinian attacks and Israeli counter-strikes, and brought the peace road map proposed by the White House, European Union, United Nations and Russia to the brink of collapse.

"We have taken a decision that if Israel shows readiness to withdraw from any Palestinian territory, we will take security responsibility in this area," said Nabil Amr, the Palestinian Information Minister.

The press has become notoriuously inept at covering and the public at following any news story that takes longer than four hours to conclude and longer than two sentences to explain, but the idea that the current round of Middle East machionations, begun only a week ago, is already at the "second wind" stage or was at a "roadblock" mid-week is truly absurd. The killings of Jews and Palestinians last week matter because they were human beings, but they didn't mean much in terms of whether there's going to be a Palestine or not. If anything, by getting the West furious at Hamas (finally), they may end up hastening statehood very slightly. Hamas is contributing to, rather than detracting from, the prospects for a settlement. Posted by Orrin Judd at June 16, 2003 9:42 AM