Is this their official response?

I've been combing the news sites to see if there had been any official response to Hamas offer of a 6 months cease fire - see previous posting, perhaps this is it?

I do hope not.

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Hamas propose truce with Israel

Within days of Jimmy Carter meeting with Hamas leaders, the Palestinian group has proposed a six month truce with Israel, aimed at easing a blockade on the Gaza strip.

Key points of their proposal are:

1. The truce between Israel and the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip would be for a period of six months, during which time Egypt would try to extend it to the West Bank.
2. The truce must be reciprocal and simultaneous on the part of Israelis and Palestinians.
3. Israel must lift its blockade of the Gaza Strip and re-open all its crossing points, including the Rafah crossing point into Egypt.
4. If Israel rejects the truce, Egypt will re-open the Rafah crossing point. If Israel reneges on its truce commitments, Egypt will keep the Rafah crossing open.
5. Egypt will supervise the process of reaching a consensus on the terms of the truce with other Palestinian factions. Omar Suleiman, the Egyptian intelligence chief, will invite whichever Palestinian factions Egypt sees fit to the country next Tuesday and Wednesday to discuss the Hamas proposals.
6. Once the Palestinian factions have agreed to the terms of the truce, Suleiman will contact the Israeli side to ensure that they are committed to the truce and fix a starting time.
7. Egypt has promised to start immediate contacts with the Israeli side to prepare the atmosphere for the truce and to provide basic needs to the Gaza Strip, especially fuel.
8. Egypt will contact Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, to make sure his rival Fatah faction does not obstruct the opening of the crossing points.
9. Egypt must try to persuade Abbas to put an end to abuses and violations in the West Bank - a reference to Fatah's harassment of Hamas members there.
10. If Israel does not meet its truce obligations by stoping attacks and ending the blockade, then the Palestinians have a right to defend themselves by all legitimate means

So, once again Condoleezza, how hard was that?

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How hard was that Condoleezza?

(Aljazeera 21 March 2008)

Jimmy Carter, the former US president, has called for Hamas to be included in peace negotiations, saying they are willing to "live as a neighbour next door in peace" with Israel if Palestinians approve a deal.

Carter said on Monday that Hamas leaders told him they would accept a negotiated peace agreement, if voted for by the Palestinian people.

His comments come after he met several Hamas leaders, including Khaled Meshaal, the exiled Hamas politico, in Syria last week.

Carter said Hamas leaders had told him they would accept a peace agreement negotiated by their rival Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president whose Fatah faction controls the West Bank, if Palestinians approved the deal in a vote.

Peacemaking

"They said they would accept a Palestinian state on the 1967 borders if approved by Palestinians ... even though Hamas might disagree with some terms of the agreement," Carter said.

The Carter proposals

The former US president has put forward the following guidelines in an effort to start peace talks between the Palestinians and Israelis:

1. An end to hostilities, or a truce between Hamas and Israel, which includes a halt to rockets attacks.

2. Securing the release of Corporal Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier captured by Hamas fighters.

3. The release of Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails.
"It means that Hamas will not undermine Abbas's efforts to negotiate an agreement and Hamas will accept an agreement if the Palestinians support it in a free vote."

Carter, who has angered Israel by meeting Hamas, also said the peace efforts had "regressed" since a US-hosted conference in Annapolis, Maryland, in November.

He said: "The problem is not that I met with with Hamas in Syria. The problem is that Israel and the United States refuse to meet with someone who must be involved."

In his speech to the Israel Council on Foreign Relations at the King David hotel in Jerusalem, Carter reiterated that he has no mandate to secure a peace deal between Israel and Palestine.

Speaking of the captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, who was seized by Hamas in a cross-border raid in June 2006, Carter said he was disappointed that his proposal to Hamas to release Shalit has been rejected.

But Carter said that he understood the Palestinian group could not free the Israeli soldier outside of a prisoner exchange with Israel.

'Side by side'

Speaking to Al Jazeera after his news conference in Jerusalem, Carter reiterated that he believe Hamas would accept the existence of Israel, if the Palestinian population voted to accept it.

"There has been a lot of conflicting statements about this issue. But from what I understood, and announced, if Abbas and [Ehud] Olmert [the Israeli prime minister] agree to a peace deal, that would ultimately allow the two states to live side by side. Hamas was asked whether they would accept the decision - they said yes."

Carter also said the "deplorable" situation in the Gaza Strip made establishing a peace deal more urgent.

"A resolution needs to be made, as people [in Gaza] are continuing to suffer. I believe however, a greater, and more effective American role is needed here - going beyond the commitments made by the Bush administration to reach a peace agreement."

Engaging Hamas

Amani Soliman, Al Jazeera's Middle East analyst, said Carter's attempt to engage Hamas was a major breakthrough.

"What he has done was a long time coming, considering that Hamas needed to be involved in the peace process," she said.

"Despite the engagement with Abbas, Tzipi Livni [the Israeli foreign minister], and other Fatah negotiators, Carter is adamant that Hamas be included in the equation – which can be viewed as a breakthrough for a Western diplomat to take this route."

Al Jazeera's Jacky Rowland, reporting from Gaza, said that Hamas's willingness to continue to secure a peace deal, implicitly reflects the movements recognition of the state of Israel.

"This effectively pulls the rug from under Israel, as they have constantly maintained that the reason they will continue isolating Hamas is because they will no recognise their state. The ball is now in Israel's court."

'Breaking the ice'

Al Jazeera's Mike Hanna, reporting from Damascus, said that Hamas had expressed willingness to go along with Carter's proposals.

"However, also from the Hamas side, the point being made that something must come in return," he said.

"What Jimmy Carter is trying to do is to break the ice - trying to get some sort of momentum going in a situation that has been utterly static."

Hamas officials said they talked with Carter about an internationally backed Israeli embargo on Gaza and a possible Israel-Hamas prisoner swap.

But Hamas did not respond to Carter's requests that it halt rocket fire on Israeli border towns and agree to talk to Eli Yishak, the Israeli deputy prime minister, about a prisoner exchange.

Over the weekend, Israel killed seven Hamas fighters in a series of air strikes after the group detonated two jeeps packed with explosives at an Israeli crossing on the Gaza border.

Israel and the US, which both consider Hamas a terrorist group, have criticised Carter's efforts to broker negotiations.

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Rounding the first bend!

Having traveled a lot I know that most of the energy in any journey goes in to the departure, and in to the arrival. The middle bit is relatively easy.

And today, I discovered that project Canterbury had successfully taken off.

We're off the ground,
we've rounded the first bend,

and I'm very excited.

So, what were those two clues again? '

My first is in Rome and also in Gnome.....

My second (and 9th) are in more and also in door

. . . . .so that's OR_ _ _ _ _ _ O _

It's got something to do with a change in direction

and, it's something I've thought about for a long time.

Mmmmm . . . what on earth could it be?

Stay tuned.

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Can you guess?

When we were traveling through the Middle East and Central Asia we learned to refer to anything of value by a code name.

Being over heard to say you needed to catch up with 'Charlie' (our code name for the bank) was much safer than saying that you needed to go to the bank and cash a travelers cheque, for example and it's a custom we have continued. In this regard we have code named our new journey 'Operation Canterbury'.

So what is Operation Canterbury? Is it:

a/ a brand of sports clothing?

b/ a series of short stories by Geoffrey Chaucer?

c/ a town in England?

d/ all or none of the above,

and how does it relate to the first steps I took last week?

Can you guess?

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