As Arab rockets reach ever deeper into Israel, they may be weakening what for years has been a cornerstone of Mideast peace efforts - an exchange of land for peace. Israeli hard-liners have long warned that any territories Israel vacates will be used to attack it. They can now point to the Hamas missile that slammed into a bus stop in Ashdod Monday.
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Before 1865, the entire population of Jerusalem lived behind the Old City walls (what today would be considered part of the eastern part of the city).
read more...Is Gaza conflict a crisis or an opportunity for Obama diplomatic team?
Ron Kampeas
Does the mini-war underway between Israel and Hamas in and around the Gaza Strip present President-elect Barack Obama's incoming administration with a crisis or an opportunity? Buried beneath the fretting over whether the renewed conflict would kill talks between Israel and the relatively moderate leadership of the Palestinian Authority were hints that it could in fact bolster the negotiations, if only by marginalizing Hamas. That, in turn, could help Obama clear the ground for a breakthrough, a prospect Obama's team seemed to recognize by limiting its reactions to expressions of support for Israel.
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