Shortly after Hamas's landslide victory in January's Palestinian elections, I predicted that a Hamas leader would one day win the Nobel Peace Prize. This is starting to seem more and more likely.
Reuters reports:
European Union foreign ministers agreed on Friday to back a Palestinian national unity government being formed by President Mahmoud Abbas with the Hamas Islamist movement, despite
U.S. misgivings.
It may take years, but it's only a matter of time before Hamas is seen not only as an acceptable organization, but a peacemaker. Just like Arafat, Hamas leaders have such a reputation as being terrorists, that any empty overtures of peace they make will come across as a major breakthrough. If I may indulge myself a bit with a quote from Henry IV, Part I:
By so much shall I falsify men's hopes;
And like bright metal on a sullen ground,
My reformation, glittering o'er my fault,
Shall show more goodly and attract more eyes
Than that which hath no foil to set it off.