When Hamas joins the discussion, you might just have a quorum
■"Hamas May Give Peace a Chance: After Arafat's death, it's Gaza vs. the West Bank," op-ed by Scott Atran, New York Times, 18 December 2004, p. A35.
Now it seems that even Hamas is coming out for moderate candidate Mahmoud Abbas, overtly working to discredit his rivals. Indications are, according to this op-ed, that a split is emerging within Hamas regarding tactics, with the West Bank crowd seeing their chance while the Gaza fanatics want to fight on. As Sheikh Hassan Yusef, the top Hamas leader in the Bank recently stated, "We have to find an exit. We need a dialogue of civilizations, not a clash of civilizations."
The number of potential spoilers is dwindling by the day, leaving only the toughest nuts yet to crack. Is the Bush Administration ready for this historic opportunity? Is it ready to deal? Or are we going to see the same lack of imagination that got us the totally snafu-ed occupation in Iraq?