Yay, progress. I sure hope that the new Palestinian Prime minister is a step forward, and the US gets is shit together with the fabled "roadmap" by actively getting involved with the Middle East peace process.

Now, this stance may seem somewhat contradictory, since I don't want us in Iraq. The thing is, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is one where I think the US could make a significant, positive contribution. I think that if we gave Israel some tough love, we might be able to push them in the right direction without getting a little too involved.

I'm not holding my breath, though. I don't see how progress can be made when one side views the other's leader as the head of a terrorist organization, and the other side views its opposition's leader as a mass murderer. You would think that I'm talking about Arafat and Sharon, respectively, but I think depending on perspective, you could view me as talking about Sharon and Arafat, respectively. This is grossly oversimplifying things, but I think it's indicitave of a lot of things.