Getting Syria to the table was a bit of a coup but it’s nearly impossible to believe that we’ll see see any substantive results from this event. If there is consensus it’s only on that very point - nothing much will come of this. Peace will come when Arab leaders and anti-Zionist forces worldwide (mostly on the far-left) no longer view the Palestinians as mere canon fodder. Arab leaders have spent decades manufacturing this crisis. They’re not walking away from it any time soon. Doing so would bring all of the ugly truths about their own societies, and their leadership, into focus. True peace will only be possible after the Arab world is transformed.

Anyway, there is an official site for those who are interested. Wikipedia has more information including a pretty comprehensive rundown on the participants.

National security advisor Steve Hadley recently laid out some goals, if you can call them that, for the event:

…the focus of these discussions are the Israelis and the Palestinians launching a negotiating process, supporting them in their efforts to implement the road map, which we still think is the critical path for achieving peace, and, in parallel, building Palestinian institutions and making sure there’s international support for that. That’s what really this meeting is all about and that’s what we hope will come out of it.

In other words, they’re not hoping for much. Or as Rick Richman puts it:

So the conference will “launch negotiations” — since the last few months of actual negotiations over a “document” have failed. Since failure is not an option, this will be called a success.

Frank Viviano is bit more optimistic:

The atmosphere is marked by weakness, uncertainty and pessimism. Yet that may prove to be the Annapolis conference’s greatest strength, an unexpected prelude to breakthrough on the 60-year road to an Arab-Israeli-settlement. It is between the lines of bleak editorials, op-ed columns and analyses in the press of the Middle East itself that this hope, however slim, can be read. From Riyadh and Beirut to Cairo and Jerusalem, pre-conference media coverage has been a strange mosaic of dark foreboding and unusual glimmers of light. No less unusual is the fact that Annapolis will bring together all of the governments and mainstream players in this unending conflict for the first time – precisely because because all of them are reeling in crisis. In a sense, there could be no more potent chemistry for success at the negotiating table. The closest equivalent is the “Nixon shock” of 35 years ago, when a fiercely anti-Communist U.S. president, faced with riots in the American streets and a war about to be lost in Southeast Asia, suddenly found common ground with a marxist China gravely enfeebled by cultural revolution.

John Bolton is cranky, pessimistic, and right (as usual):

“If there is a conference and it fails, we are not simply in the status quo that we had before,” Bolton said during a Web-based question-and-answer session. “We are in a worse position, because it will show a decline in American influence, a failure in a very visible way. I wish we weren’t doing this at all.”

And The Washington Post falls somewhere in the middle:

If there are causes for optimism, they lie in the hopeful public rhetoric of Mr. Olmert and Mr. Abbas — and the fears that lie behind it. Mr. Olmert has publicly pledged several times that Israel will negotiate seriously, and he said last week that he believed there was a chance to complete a peace deal by the end of next year. His government, like many in the Middle East, is deeply worried by Iran’s attempt to expand its influence throughout the region and believes a failure of the talks would play into Tehran’s hands. That prospect may be enough to produce some progress at the Annapolis meeting and in the months to come. But the breakthrough that Ms. Rice thought was possible still looks remote.

While, Henry Siegman hits all of the Arab talking points on the way to this ridiculously one-sided conclusion:

If the international community has been largely indifferent to—or impotent to do anything about—what some have tried to portray as a quarrel between Israel and Palestinians over where to draw the border between the two, it is far less likely to remain indifferent to an Israel intent on permanently denying its majority Arab population the rights and privileges it accords to its minority of Jewish citizens. It would be an apartheid regime that, one hopes, a majority of Israelis would themselves not abide.

Some people will do anything for money:

According to the prosecution, during his IDF reserve duty, the psychiatrist was exposed to classified material including emergency plans of the IDF Medical Corps, detailed plans for the deployment of medical units and control centers, procedures for providing psychiatric services to the home front during a war and tactics for evacuating civilians in the event of rocket attacks, as well as IDF intelligence and operations assessments.

The November 22 indictment served in the Petah Tikva Magistrate’s Court asserts that “in April 2007, Shamir decided to provide information to hostile entities in exchange for money and he contacted the Iranian Foreign Ministry by electronic mail.”

Stupid - but it gets worse:

In addition, it is alleged that in August 2007, Shamir sent faxes from his home to the Iranian consulates in London and Turkey and, about a month ago, after receiving no responses, he faxed them again. Police said that after sending the faxes he destroyed them and saved the fax numbers to his cellular phone memory in order lessen the chances of detection.

If only all spies were this stupid.

The Israeli response it pretty funny actually. According to them it’s just not a big deal:

In the first reaction from an Israeli official to Wednesday night’s alleged IAF foray over Syria, Science, Culture and Sports Minister Ghaleb Majadle said Friday that IAF planes enter Syrian airspace on a daily basis, adding that he did not believe the latest alleged incident would spark off a war.

Majadle told the Nazareth-based A-Sinara newspaper that while he had no specific information about the latest alleged operation, it was likely that “the planes either entered Syrian airspace to take photographs or in error.”

So they were either spying or there accidentally. I’ll let you decide which.

The private security guards handled themselves bravely in the pursuit and likely prevented a far worse attack:

The video clearly shows Ahmed Mahmoud Khatib, 29, from Kafr Manda in the western Galilee, following the guards, Alex Nepelvich and Mikhail Popov, as they patrolled the narrow cobblestone streets of the Old City. Then, as the guards start to enter a kiosk, Khatib snatches Popov’s gun and runs away.

The guards give chase through the crowded street, and Khatib tries to shoot Popov, but failed since the pistol was locked, the video shows. The two men scuffled and this time Khatib succeeded in shooting Popov, before fleeing.

“My weapon was taken from me by complete surprise, and then he is pointing the weapon at me with his face to me,” Popov, 31, recalled from his bed at Jerusalem’s Shaare Tzedek Medical Center.

“I jumped on him, and he cocked the gun, and at that second I grabbed his hands. At that minute he started shooting.”

Nepelvich is seen on the video standing next to a wall and shooting at the terrorist.

At first, Nepelvich failed to hit Khatib. After a resumed chase, Nepelvich caught up with Khatib and killed him.

There’s nothing to see here. Just move along. It’s just another video from a bearded attention-seeking dumbass who is filled with rage because he didn’t get a pony as a child:

“We shall continue to target you at home and abroad just as you target us at home and abroad … ,” Gadahn — also known as Azzam the American — says in the video provided to CNN by www.LauraMansfield.com, a Web site that analyzes terrorism.

Later in the video, which is about an hour long and takes the form of a documentary, the self-proclaimed American jihadist makes explicit threats against the United States and U.S. interests, singling out embassies and consulates. Video Watch a silent excerpt of the video »

“These spy dens and military command and control centers — from which you plotted your aggression against Afghanistan and Iraq and which still provide vital moral, military, material and logistical support to the crusade — shall continue to be legitimate targets for brave Muslims … until and unless you heed our demands: Stop the crusade and leave the Muslims alone,” he said.

I think he is probably pleading their followers, giving them broad direction, more than anything else. You can download the video, which is provided by Laura Mansfield, here. (Now available above - John)

Rare good news:

“The last 16 weeks have been the very worst of my life,” he said at a press conference a few hours after being freed.

“It was like being buried alive, being removed from the world [with] occasionally very terrifying people who were dangerous and unpredictable and frightening.”

“The stresses are absolutely huge,” he said.

“It’s a battle to keep your mind in the right place.”

He said he felt “unimaginable relief” upon his release.

“I’ve dreamt, literally dreamt, many times of being free again and I would always wake up in that room.”

It was hard for him to believe, Johnston said, that he will not wake up back in captivity again.

He said his captors were not violent, although they were often “rude and unfriendly” and sometimes threatened his life.

Hamas wants to take credit for this, claiming that they have lines of communication open with the Army of Islam. Whatever. I’m pleased, but not impressed, when terrorists release their captives.

Israel appears to be nearly paralyzed as the threats mount.

“The era of justice and Islamic rule have arrived” in Gaza, a spokesman for the Hamas militia was quoted as saying on Thursday.

Press reports said Hamas fighters — Islamic radicals — are winning their battle with the Fatah faction, which is loyal to Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas.

Hamas fighters, who are said to be better armed and trained, want an Islamic Palestinian state in all of Gaza, the West Bank, and Israel. They stormed one of Fatah’s key security installations in the Gaza Strip on Thursday, reportedly dragging Fatah gunmen from the building and executing them one by one in the street.

Broadcasting from inside the P.A.’s Preventive Security Services headquarters in Gaza City, Hamas television displayed weapons it said were smuggled into Gaza by Israel and the U.S. over the last months to aid Fatah.

Fatah forces are paying a heavy price:

Fatah officials said seven of their fighters were shot to death in the street outside Preventive Security. A witness, Jihad Abu Ayad, said the men were being killed in front of their wives and children.

“They are executing them one by one,” Abu Ayad said. “They are carrying one of them on their shoulders, putting him on a sand dune, turning him around and shooting.”

Some of the Hamas fighters kneeled down outside the building, touching their foreheads to the ground in prayer. Others led Fatah fighters out of the building, some of them shirtless or in their underwear, holding their arms in the air. Several of the Fatah men flinched as the crack of gunfire split the air.

Carl in Jerusalem has a plan for a Hamas-controlled Gaza:

What should Israel do? Israel should seal off the crossings from Gaza into Israel completely and let the ‘Palestinians’ rot. Nothing comes in and nothing goes out on our side. Let the Egyptians deal with them. Unless they start shooting Kassams. Then we can let the helicopters deal with them.

Israel will be condemned for that action, of course, but what sane country would expose its population to Hamas controlled border crossings?

How do you send your kids to school when you’re under almost constant rocket attack? The rockets don’t have guidance systems so the schools can’t easily be targeted but the Palestinians would love nothing more than a Qassam rocket landing on a school packed full of children:

The Sderot Municipality has asked the Education Ministry for approval to terminate the current school year immediately, and resume classes in August should the security situation allow it.

Sderot children will return to school Sunday for the first time since the recent fighting broke out, although classes will be held outside the embattled town in areas that are not within the Qassam rocket’s range.

The students will be brought to Kibbutz Ruhama in armored buses, from which they will be bussed to schools in nearby towns.

Another Israeli civilian was killed by the rockets today.

Hamas is starting to feel some pain:

In the continued crackdown on Hamas in the wake of Kassam rocket attacks from Gaza, the IDF conducted a massive arrest sweep of senior Hamas leaders in the West Bank overnight Wednesday, arresting the Palestinian Authority education minister, three parliament members and several mayors.

In total, the IDF said it had arrested 33 Palestinians, the most senior of which was Hamas Education Minister Nasser al-Shaer. Other detainees included three parliament members, the head of the Wakf in Nablus, a top official in the PA Interior Ministry, the mayors of Nablus, Kalkilya, Bidya and El-Bireh, and 21 Hamas operatives and other officials.

The army also shut down 10 Hamas offices in towns throughout the West Bank, includin Jenin, Ramallah, Nablus and Bethlehem.

Hamas’ politicians aren’t the least bit troubled by the loss of a few followers but they might pull back just a bit when the IDF starts dropping JDAMs through their chimneys.

Earlier Sunday, the security cabinet granted the IDF a green light to strike at terror chiefs, including politicians, involved in the nonstop Kassam rocket fire on Sderot.

Two hours after the cabinet dispersed, IAF aircraft fired a missile at a terrorist cell walking down a street in the Gaza City neighborhood of Sajiya, killing eight and wounding 13.

Palestinians said the missile struck the home of Hamas lawmaker Khalil al-Haya. But the IDF said the strike was on the terror cell and it was possible that Haya’s home was hit by shrapnel. Palestinians said at least six of the dead were Haya’s relatives.

I still don’t see any indication that Israel is ready to deal with the Hamas problem in a decisive manner. This will probably escalate a bit more, tension will be defused with some kind of hollow agreement, things will simmer, and we’ll be back here again in a few months.