Sincere condolences

This from the Indie caught my eye the other day.

So Hamas have now recognized Israel. Sort of. This is 'recognize' as in 'OK, despite our best efforts Israel has not been wiped off the map as of today's date'. Similar to the sense in which, for instance, I recognize that George Galloway is a Member of Parliament. Anyway, it's supposed to be significant.

Then there's the news that Hamas's popular support has taken a nosedive. One reason is their recent massacre of a group of Fatah security men, and that seems a pretty good reason. The other, though, is the enthusiastic welcome their sponsors in Tehran have given to the execution of Saddam Hussein. This is obviously not an issue of principle: every state in the Middle East has the death penalty (with one exception - I don't need to say any more, do I?) and an independent Palestine would doubtless follow the regional trend. No, the point at issue is that the late tyrant and mass murderer won a place in Palestinian hearts by lobbing missiles at Israeli cities and funding pensions for the families of suicide bombers. Yasser Arafat was, in turn, happy to support his invasion of Kuwait.

So Fatah is riding high on a wave of sympathy for Saddam. Is this a good thing or a bad thing? I'm really not sure, but I do know that if I had neighbours like these I'd want a good strong fence.

There is of course one surefire way for Tehran to restore its prestige, and scientists in bunkers scattered around Iran are beavering away at it even as I write. I'm afraid we're going to hear a lot more about this in 2007.