The Peace Process Moves On

I wrote recently that the MSM are worried that W. may be the President who leads the Israelis and Palestinians to some kind of lasting truce. Sharon has--at great personal and political risk--pushed his plan to abandon settlements in Gaza and the West Bank. Another step in that process occurred yesterday:

PEAT SADEH, Gaza Strip – Residents of a small Jewish settlement said Sunday they've struck a deal to move to a village inside Israel, giving a boost to the government's contentious Gaza pullout plan by becoming the first community to agree to be evacuated.
Peat Sadeh, a tiny, upscale farming village tucked into the southwest corner of Gaza about a mile from the Mediterranean Sea, raised the ire of hard-line settler leaders, who are mounting a campaign against Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plan to remove all 21 settlements from Gaza and four from a part of the West Bank next year.
Sharon's hard-line coalition government fell apart over his sudden policy shift a year ago, forcing him to try to reconstitute his team with the moderate Labor Party, his traditional rival.
In early 2004, Sharon abruptly abandoned decades of work for settlement construction and expansion, calling Gaza' settlements "untenable" because only 8,200 Israelis live there among more than 1 million Palestinians in the impoverished, crowded seaside territory.

This is a significant step in the process and a political win for Sharon.

Meanwhile, Palestinian 'elections' took place last week:

RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) - Hamas Islamic militants scored significant successes in Palestinian municipal elections, the first contested by the group sworn to Israel's destruction, initial results showed on Friday.
An unofficial tally gave Hamas control of seven councils against 11 for the dominant Fatah movement, taking results from 24 of the 26 councils contested on Thursday. Official radio said Fatah took 60 percent of seats to 23 percent for Hamas.
The results were certain to send a message of Islamist strength to Mahmoud Abbas, the moderate from Fatah who is expected to succeed Yasser Arafat in a Jan. 9 presidential election and then try to restart talks with Israel.

Hamas and Fatah, those great political parties that believe in a democratic society. BTW, Abu Mazen is not a "moderate" and his true colors will reappear when the "message of Islamist strength" becomes part of his platform.