Codoleezza Rice And Possible Opportunity In The Middle East

Reuters is reporting that Secretary of State Rice has obtained preliminary support from the Saudis for a new peace conference between Israel and Mahmoud Abbas's West Bank government.

As I discussed in a recent post, the fissure between Hamas and Fatah, now a geographic as well as a philosophical gap, presents a unique opportunity for Israel, with the support of the Quartet and the Sunni states in the region to institute a partial peace with Israel that will allow all parties to focus their energies on counteracting Iran's rising influence in the region. For a longer exposition of this concept, see Thomas Barnett's discussion of Sara Kass' WSJ piece on the topic, and Mark Helprin's NY Times OpEd piece.

Photo: AP