THE MIDDLE EAST PEACE PLAN THAT COULD. They think they can...they think they can...In this case it's Dennis Ross, writing for The New Republic. Once the need for a Palestinian state is taken as a given, any given situation can be twisted to show The Holy Grail of Middle East Peace is juuuuust within reach:

With Israel desiring an end to rocket attacks, Hamas possibly deciding that it also needs calm (if for no other reason than to consolidate its hold on Gaza), and Fatah concluding that it can hardly remake itself while struggling with Hamas, there still could be a convergence of interest in having a real ceasefire. As Abbas falls back to talking to Hamas, it will make sense to probe whether a detailed understanding on a ceasefire with real obligations and real consequences for non-performance are possible.

Hope springs eternal.

So it is the competition with Hamas that should be our preoccupation. The United States should work with all the other donors to the Palestinians, and especially the Saudis and the Gulf states, to invest in those younger Fatah members who are prepared to organize themselves at the grass-roots level and re-brand Fatah as a clean organization responsive to the needs of the Palestinian public.

Hmmm. How about changing their charter?

Article (12) Complete liberation of Palestine, and eradication of Zionist economic, political, military and cultural existence.

UPDATE: Soccer Dad points out this from Daniel Pipes:

Two Palestines, anyone?"

One of these days, maybe, the idiot-savant "peace processors" will note the trail of disasters their handiwork has achieved. Instead of mulishly working to return Fatah and Jerusalem to the bargaining table, they might try focusing on gaining a change of heart among the roughly 80 percent of Palestinians, those still seeking to undo the outcome of the 1948-49 war by defeating Zionism and constructing a 22nd Arab state atop Israel's carcass.

Idiot savant? I prefer the technical term "know-it-all."

UPDATE II: See also John Podhoretz on You Can't Make Peace If They Want War on Ross' admission of mistakes made, though the goal remains the same.

Technorati Tag: Israel and Dennis Ross and Gaza and West Bank.