Any hope of peace in Israel-Palestine?

I'm pretty gloomy about the prospects of peace in the biblical lands. (Perhaps I ought to call them the "bibilical-koranic" lands, or even "Palestine", but I'll let my bias peek out: they were biblical first, after all...).  I think about the best Israel can expect is the status quo, and even that's increasingly difficult to hold, what with the increasing anti-zionist, growingly anti-semitic trends in the west and the unremitting enmity by all of its near neighbours.  And demographics, which will make jews a minority in Israel in the not-too-distant future.

But a touch of hope, watching the affable Mahmoud Abbas on Charlie Rose this morning...
... Mahmoud Abbas on Charlie Rose this morning...I was expecting to be annoyed by what I assumed would be Rose's attitude, left-leaning pro-Palestinian bent, sugar-coating Hamas' violence.  But no.  He was rather balanced, I thought.
Abbas is a genial old fellow, avuncular even.  He tripped himself up early on, or showed his own prejudice (ignorance? I think not) when he called the "activists" on the ship bringing "aid" to Gaza, the one where the Israelis botched their raid on it and killed nine on board -- when he called them "freedom activists", when in fact they were sent out by a Turkish "charity" with links to Hamas, they were armed and aggressive and clearly spoiling for a fight, which they duly got, and duly got the immediate payoff in a deluge of viciously anti-Israel/jew calls for even further punishment of Israel.  And he also said that Hamas was talking about living with Israel in its 1967 borders indicating that "Hamas has changed" (ie for the better, in recognising Israel, one is left to infer), whereas later in the interview he says "some in Hamas have changed".  And nowhere did Charlie Rose talk of the Hamas Charter.  Until that is changed, then nothing really that "some" in Hamas says can really be trusted.

Having said all that, there may be some hope to have hope, if hope's your thing in the biblical lands.  If all the countries in the region can guarantee they will recognise Israel and if there were a withdrawal from the West Bank (tough, but doable), and if there were a NATO peace-keeping force in the new Palestinian state and if there were a disarming of that state and if ... if Hamas would renounce its Charter.... Aha! there's the rub, for that one thing is what stands in the way.  No-one talks, at least loudly, about the Charter.  Until they do, and until Hamas renounces it, no amount of saying "some" in Hamas have changed (in their acknowledgment of the state of Israel), will help.  As Sam Goldwyn said "a verbal contract is not worth the paper it's written on" (to the pedant, "verbal" should be "oral" for the malapropism to really work -- or "really to work"...).

One other comment Abbas made I'm inclined to believe, though why, I don't know, I guess it's just the belief in the basic humaneness of humans, their basic love of peace, inherent in all, till poisoned by a nasty ideology.  He said that all Palestinians (I guess he means Muslim Arabs in the West Bank) want peace and that if you talked "intifada" to them, they would not do it.  That would be the same amongst the jewish settlers -- but what would happen to them, if there were to be an agreement on withdrawal from the WB?  Would they have some role?  Not, of course, so therein yet another stumbling block).  Still, it's a base, the love, the desire for peace, which is also mirrored in Israel, where one reads, 80% want a peace agreement with palestinians.

He also seemed to hedge on the issue of the "right of return" of palestinians to Israel and it's good that he hedges. That has to be dropped for there to be any hope.

I always recall this summary of the biblical lands:

"If the Palestinians put down their arms there will be peace.  

If Israel lays down it arms it will be annihilated".

So far, pace Abbas, that's true.  So the NATO force is needed as is the demilitirisation of the new palestinian state.  Oh, and Hamas needs to renounce its Charter.  Dreaming on.