But that will not stop Bush and Baker and Rice from forcing Israel to make more concessions in the hopes of winning that chimerical recognition. From The Guardian Unlimited, with thanks to Kasper:
The Palestinian prime minister, Ismail Haniyeh, today said his Hamas-led government will never recognise Israel and will continue to fight for the liberation of Jerusalem.
“We will never recognise the usurper Zionist government and will continue our jihad-like movement until the liberation of Jerusalem,” Mr Haniyeh told thousands of Friday prayer worshippers at Tehran University in Iran.
The comments underline the difficulty of the task confronting Tony Blair, who confirmed yesterday at a joint press conference in Washington with George Bush that he is to visit Israel and the Palestinian territories in a last push for peace before he leaves office next year. Mr Haniyeh, who is on his first foreign visit since his Hamas-led government took office in March after a surprise election victory, called Iran, a long-time ally of Hamas, the Palestinians’ “strategic depth”.
Difficulty? How about impossibility?