Admittedly, Meshaal has a point. The process has stagnated. I'm not condoning an end to the truce or the resumption of offensive attacks from either side, but neither Israel or the Authority seem to have made any progress lately.

One step towards peace, imo, would be for Israel drop its demand that the Hamas organization as a whole be taken down. To understand the popularity of Hamas in the Palestinian territories, it's necessary to see Hamas' social welfare programs - schools, hospitals, charities. For many Palestinians, Hamas has been a source of support against the ineffective and corrupt Fatah leadership. That Hamas has a radical militant and political wing has to be seen as a seperate issue. The Holy Land has a long history of Jews and Muslims living side-by-side relatively peacefully and without doubt in my mind, if the secularist Fatah had executed the same kinds of social programs with the same kind of integrity Hamas does now, groups like Hamas would have a lot less success with their political and military agenda.