Israel to Transfer West Bank Security

I've said it many times, the only impediment to peace between Palestine and Israel is Arafat. Now granted, his death did not bring instant Xanadu to Palestine but I think slow progress is being made. Israel, true to their word, has said that they would give up territory if the PLO would just clamp down on the terrorists. Here is another story off the wire that may just be another brick in the wall of Middle Eastern peace.

"TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) - Israel will transfer security control over several West Bank towns to the Palestinians in coming days, Israel's defense minister said Sunday, hours after meeting with a top Palestinian negotiator to work out the details of Israel's troop redeployment.

A senior Palestinian security official said control of the first four towns - Ramallah, Tulkarem, Qalqiliya and Jericho - would be handed over Wednesday, the latest sign of rapid change on the ground after more than four years of fighting.

Israel informed Palestinian officials it was ready to withdraw from all West Bank towns "within a very short period of time" and return to positions it held before the outbreak of fighting in September 2000, said Hassan Abu Libdeh, a senior Palestinian official.

Such a pullback is part of the long-stalled, U.S.-backed "road map" peace plan, which both sides now say they are ready to implement."

I'm pretty bullish on this thing. Nobody thought we'd see the end of Communism but I remember it as clear as day. I was in Junior High when the Berlin Wall came down and the Soviet Union collapsed into Russia and "former Soviet Republics". Change in the world is slow and arduous. It's painful and mistakes will be made. But it does happen. I think in a lot of ways the 21st century will be defined by it's role in cleaning the damage from the 20th century. You all remember that one right? That's the one where we had two world wars and the threat of nuclear war.

Obviously there is still a long way to go and at any moment we could slouch towards war with China or Iran but one never knows. Unlike Ted Kennedy I'm optomistic and I think the US can succeed in the Middle East. Unlike Ted Kennedy and his ilk in the Democrat Party, I actually want the US, Iraq and Democracy at large to succeed