Speaking with a forked tongue

In the last days Israeli PM Olmert met with Palestinian President Abbas and even announced a number of so-called concessions in a move said to be aimed in bringing about some sort of peace between Israel and the Palestinians. The Hamas leadership condemned the lastest moves as being little else than the Israelis duping the Palestinians.

It looks like Hamas were spot on. In a move which can only be regarded as madness and spitting into the face of the Palestinians, the IHT reports today:

"Israel has approved the construction of a new settlement in the occupied West Bank for the first time in a decade, according to the Israeli Defense Ministry and settler groups speaking Tuesday.

The announcement comes days after Prime Minister Ehud Olmert of Israel met for a first substantive meeting with the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, and is bound to embarrass the Palestinian leader, already being criticized by political rivals in Hamas for carrying out an Israeli and American agenda with little to show for it."

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Mahler's Prodigal Son

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