The Palestinian Election

With Mahmoud Abbas announcing he's the victor in elections there today, one can only hope that this will spell a new era in the Middle East, one that will ultimately lead to the establishment of a true, independent Palestinian state that can co-exist with Israel.

However, this is anything but assured. Even if everything there were not both so violent and volatile, we have to understand that we've got a rather crazed contingent here in this country that wants the Palestinians to all drop dead so their version of the "end times" can play out, where all Israelis convert to Christianity and the Rapture can happen.

What's truly unfortunate is that these nutjobs also happen to have unreasonable control over our country right now. Not good. I'm not sure that seeing Israel as only a means to their version of the end is any better than these same people hating Jews as "the people what killed our lord" (anyone remember Loretta - the incredible Mary Kay Place - in "Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman"?).

So Abbas has one hell of a job ahead of him, and probably extraordinarily bad chances of staying alive for long if he tries to bring peace.