Ethiopia powers up with solar energy.

August 8, 2008 -  By David Ehrlich, Cleantech Group.

 http://media.cleantech.com/3213/ethiopia…

Germany’s Solar Energy Foundation aims to improve living conditions and foster a solar industry in Ethiopia. The rural village of Rema in Ethiopia could become a cleantech boom-town if the work of Germany’s Solar Energy Foundation continues its success in the region.

Since 2006, the foundation has installed 2,000 solar systems in Rema and in nearby Rema ena Dire, the biggest solar power project in East Africa. The project has brought power to 5,500 residents in a country where only one percent of people in rural areas have access to electricity.

The charity is led by Harald Schutzeichel, the founder and former head of Freiburg, Germany’s S.A.G. Solarstrom, with the Good Energies Foundation on board as a major backer. The Good Energies Foundation is an affiliate of New York-based renewable energy investor Good Energies.

Schutzeichel, who left S.A.G. Solarstrom in 2003, said he isn’t interested in just installing solar systems in Ethiopia. His group is training the villagers to install and maintain the systems, and he says there is growing interest from the solar industry to set up shop in the country.

“Until now we import all the materials from China,” Schutzeichel told the Cleantech Group. “It’s not necessary to do this if there’s a market in Ethiopia.”

“We have two interested companies. They want to invest in Ethiopia because they see this big market.”

The foundation is aiming to have 50 solar training centers across the country, incorporating classroom for solar energy training, workshops for the assembly of the solar systems, and accommodations for around 30 students and solar technicians at each center.

The first International Solar Energy School opened its doors in Rema last year, with more set to be built this year. The schools will be powered by solar energy, with a photovoltaic system providing electricity and a solar thermal system providing warm water.

The initial solar installations were provided by the charity, with the residents paying only for maintenance and service. Installations in other areas will use microfinancing to enable residents to pay for the solar systems over a three year period.

The solar panels are used to power lighting, refrigeration for medicine, water pumps, and water disinfection.

The Good Energies Foundation committed $2.7 million to the Ethiopian solar project in 2006 at the Clinton Global Initiative, an annual philanthropic meeting headed up by former President Bill Clinton.

The former president took a tour of the facilities in Rema on his recent tour of Clinton Foundation projects in Africa.

Take a look at Bill, Harald and Chelsea here >>

“There’s already a market there because people are already paying for their energy needs, even if they’re paying for the kerosene on a monthly basis and dry cell batteries,” said Richenda Van Leeuwen, senior adviser at Good Energies. “This is just bringing it onto a more environmentally sustainable and viable platform.”

In addition to Good Energies, Germany’s Conrad Electronic and Switzerland’s Industrielle Werke Basel are providing base financing for the Solar Energy Foundation’s projects.

German solar cell maker Q-Cells, which is a Good Energies portfolio company, is also a partner in the project, supporting the solar training school. Energiebau Solarstromsysteme and Phocos, both based in Germany, are also project partners.

The standard system being installed by the Solar Energy Foundation is a 10 watt system, along with four LED lights and a radio, with a pricetag of about €180.

“It’s not the cheapest one, but I think in this area we shouldn’t use the cheapest material,” said Schutzeichel. “We have very good modules, because they should work for 25 years. We have UV-resistant cable, because they have a lot of sun, and if you use cheap cable it will be damaged after two years.”

The foundation already has plans to offer a double-size unit for families who can afford it, as well as a smaller system with just one high-power LED lamp. The smaller system will sell for €30.

“Thus far it’s been proof of concept,” said Van Leeuwen. She said the organization now has the capacity to do 4,000 installations per year.

“We’re looking at the way to move from being a philanthropic model to being an at least partially microfinance-driven model in order to bring both scale and also to ensure the sustainability, building a sustainable solar sector in Ethiopia.”

Schutzeichel said the foundation is currently operating on €1 million per year and has successfully completed the biggest solar power project in East Africa with that budget. But in a country with 60 million people without power, he said it’s time to move to the next level.

“We have to scale up, and one day, one year, we should have 50,000 per year installed.”

He said one solar company is deciding on whether to set up operations in Tanzania or Ethiopia, and could make a decision by the end of this month. “They say in Tanzania are the better conditions, but in Ethiopia is the bigger market,” said Schutzeichel.

“Now they have to decide. If they decide against Ethiopia,” he said, “we will find another.”

UNESCO TEAMS SUCCESSFULLY COMPLETE RETURN OF ETHIOPIAN OBELISK TO ORIGINAL
SITE

One of Ethiopia’s most iconic monuments, the 1,700-year-old Aksum Obelisk,
has been successfully reinstalled at its original location after the third
and final block was mounted in place this week by teams from the United
Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

The monument’s reinstallation, completed yesterday, took place six decades
after Italian soldiers carted the obelisk off to Rome during Benito
Mussolini’s invasion in 1937.

UNESCO said locals living near the Aksum World Heritage site in northern
Ethiopia, close to the Eritrean border, greeted the end of the
reinstallation with joy, organizing spontaneous musical concerts. An
inauguration ceremony has been slated for 4 September 2008.

The Aksum Obelisk, which is 24 metres high and weighs 150 tons, is the
second largest stela – or upright stone slab or tablet – on the Aksum World
Heritage site. It has become a symbol of the Ethiopian people’s identity.

After mediation by UNESCO, Italy decided to return the obelisk in April
2005, and paid for the dismantling in Rome and subsequent transport and
reinstallation. The monument’s size meant it had to be cut into three
pieces before being reinstalled.

 From:    liasieghart at hotmail.com
Subject: new publication - Towards an Effective Implementation of the CDM in the Middle East and North Africa Region – A Perspective from Yemen.
Date: July 30, 2008

Dr. Lia Carol Sieghart
International Advisor
DNA Secretariat
Ministry of Water and Environment
Sana’a, Republic of Yemen
Mob: + 967 7117 8 9994
 www.cdm-yemen.org

The paper aims by taking Yemen as an example to outline some of the reasons why the CDM in the MENA Region has not picked up to its full potential so far. It is anticipated that this publication will assist decision makers, policy analysts and others concerned with the CDM process to deliberate the perceived opportunities and barriers, which may open up ways and means for the CDM in the Region through cooperative action at various levels and sectors of interest.”

Feedback is welcome, please email  sieghart at yemen.net.ye

We did and we got the above statement by the Minister from their website. The Website has also a list of projects and seems to include openness for outside involvement.

From:  unnews at un.org
Subject: UN DAILY NEWS DIGEST - 23 July
Date: July 23, 2008

UN DAILY NEWS from the UNITED NATIONS NEWS SERVICE.
23 July, 2008
=========================================================================

SOMALIA: UN ENVOY CALLS ON SECURITY COUNCIL TO TAKE ‘BOLD, DECISIVE AND
FAST ACTION’

The United Nations envoy to Somalia told the Security Council today that
there were limited choices for bringing peace to the violence-wracked Horn
of Africa country, but that the time had come to make a final decision on
the best possible option.

Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah said that the options included converting the current
African Union peacekeeping mission to Somalia, known as AMISOM, to a UN
operation by “rehatting” the troops, creating an international
stabilization force or establishing a new UN peacekeeping force.

Mr. Ould-Abdallah also called on the Council to make a strong public
expression of support for the peace agreement signed in Djibouti in June
between the Transitional Federal Government of Somalia and the Alliance for
the Re-Liberation of Somalia.

“Given that Somalis have suffered for so long, and the current favourable
political context following the Djibouti Agreement, it is time for the
Security Council to take bold, decisive and fast action,” he said in a
statement to the council.

“An effective implementation of the Agreement should be an incentive to
bring more Somalis on board and give them a chance to contribute to the
birth of their country,” he said, noting that “in all peace processes some
individuals or groups always set out by rejecting agreements.”

Acknowledging that violence had been pervasive in Somalia for a long time,
the envoy said the Djibouti Agreement provided an opportunity to
marginalize and eventually stop such violence. He also called for a review
of the names on the Security Council sanctions list to recognize the role
of individuals who had decided to change their behaviour and support peace.

Mr. Ould-Abdallah added that the peace agreement should provide security
for humanitarian programmes in the country, in particular for naval escorts
for the UN World Food Programme (WFP), which brings 80 per cent of its food
aid to Somalia by sea. He said that it was unfortunate that these escorts
had now ceased.

On the humanitarian front, the envoy said he sympathized with Somali
nations who constitute more than 95 per cent of aid workers in south and
central Somalia.

“They risk their lives daily and all too often have been the innocent
victims of targeted killings. With international determination, as shown in
Kosovo and elsewhere, the individuals carrying out these terrible deeds
should not be given a chance to prevail,” he said.

——————
* * *

UN-AFRICAN UNION MISSION CHIEF MEETS WITH SUDANESE PRESIDENT IN DARFUR

The head of the United Nations-African Union peacekeeping mission in Darfur
(UNAMID) met today with President Omar al-Bashir of Sudan at the mission’s
headquarters in El Fasher.

Mr. al-Bashir reiterated his country’s resolve to provide security for
UNAMID staff and convoys. “You are our guests and our partners,” he said,
“and we are ready to provide any assistance that will help you do your
work.”

The Joint Special Representative told the President that UNAMID’s
deployment was besieged by numerous challenges, but said that the mission
was strengthening its resolve to reach its full capacity as soon as
possible.

The Sudanese leader expressed his condolences to UNAMID and the families of
those peacekeepers that have lost their lives in Darfur while serving the
mission. Seven blue helmets were killed in an ambush earlier this month in
North Darfur and, just over a week later, another was shot dead in West
Darfur.

Mr. Adada pointed out that UNAMID had thousands of containers awaiting
“movement along the difficult and sometimes dangerous routes into Darfur,”
and called on the Sudanese Government to ensure that the convoys reach
their destinations safely.

The Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Sudan, Ashraf Qazi,
also travelled to Darfur and attended the meetings with the President.

UNAMID reported that the deployment of an Egyptian engineering unit had to
be postponed after the airport was closed for the President’s visit. New
dates for the deployment are yet to be confirmed.

Meanwhile, the mission announced that it is continuing to suspend the
temporary relocation of its non-essential UN personnel. Some 300 people
were moved out of Darfur before the relocation was halted last Friday.

Earlier this week, Mr. Adada met Amr Moussa, the Secretary-General of the
Arab League, to discuss cooperation and peace in Darfur in the wake of the
recent war crimes charges sought by the International Criminal Court (ICC)
Prosecutor against Mr. al-Bashir.

Some 300,000 people are estimated to have been killed as a result of direct
combat, disease or malnutrition since 2003. Another 2.7 million people have
been displaced because of fighting between rebels, Government forces and
allied militiamen known as the Janjaweed.
* * *

SUDAN AND UN SIGN FOUR-YEAR DEVELOPMENT ASSISTANCE PLAN

The Sudanese Government today signed an agreement with United Nations
agencies operating in the country on a four-year aid plan covering
peacebuilding, governance and the rule of law, employment, education and
health care as well as other services.

The agreement, known as the UN Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF),
was signed by representatives of the Government of National Unity and the
Government of Southern Sudan and 18 UN agencies headed by Humanitarian and
Resident Coordinator Ameerah Haq.

Ms. Haq said the new agreement, which covers the years 2009 to 2012, “will
enable us to move beyond annual planning, and set more ambitious
development goals with the help of all our national and international
partners. With the endorsement of this planning tool, the UN will spare no
effort in helping the country achieve tangible progress toward the
Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).”

“The consolidation of peace and stability in the country remains the
ultimate goal of the UNDAF process,” she added.

Welcoming the new agreement, Sudan’s State Minister of International
Cooperation El Elias Nyamlell Wakoson said that it “represents an important
step in terms of moving forward jointly with a common vision of our
strategic direction in support of the peace process.”

THE FOLLOWING IS EYE OPENING AND A FURTHER GOOD LAUNDRY-LIST OF WHAT IS WRONG WITH PROMISES OF FOREIGN AID THAT LEADS NOWHERE. THESE TWO PRESENTERS SHOW THAT AFRICA STARTS FROM POINTS BELLOW ZERO. BUT WHAT CAN THE G8 ACHIEVE IN THREE DAYS WHEN THE PROBLEMS ARE THAT THERE IS INTERNATIONAL SYSTEM NEGLECT, AND AFRICA’S OWN LEADERSHIP HAS NO CONSIDERATION FOR THE UN RULE  - “THE RESPONSIBILITY TO PROTECT.”

Sunday, July 6, 2008

G8 COUNTDOWN: G8 blind to Africa’s true needs, farmer says.

By JANICE TANG
Kyodo News

Zambian farmer Joyce Mwanje landed in Japan after a long journey across half the globe, leaving her husband and seven children to tend to the fields where they till the land with hand hoes to grow maize, soybeans, vegetables and other crops.

Mwanje has come with the important mission of representing fellow African peasant farmers to make their voices heard by the leaders of the Group of Eight countries who will meet in Hokkaido from Monday for their annual summit.

Mwanje, 47, who heads her community’s farmers development club in the rural area of Chibobo in Serenje, central Zambia, wants to ensure that the G8 nations not only live up to their aid pledges, but also realize Africa’s true needs.

“In my village, we produce mainly staple food with occasional or no surplus sold,” Mwanje said in an interview in Tokyo. “The majority of people cultivate less than 2 hectares of rain-fed land using simple techniques and cultivation practices, and produce mainly maize, groundnuts, roots and tubers for their own consumption.”

“The problem we have is we can only use hand hoes for plowing our land. We don’t manage to have much harvest for income,” she said.

Joseph Ssuuna, secretary general of nongovernmental organization PELUM Association, accompanied Mwanje to Japan. He said aid provision is complex and flawed.

“When world leaders meet to talk about the food crisis in the world, they have to look at the means of production that people have at their disposal,” he said.

Ssuuna, whose group promotes ecological land-use management, criticized the developed nations’ emphasis on introducing new seeds and increasing the amount of fertilizers and agrochemicals in their push for the so-called Green Revolution for Africa.

He said that what is really needed to transform the lives of African farmers is access to basic farming machinery and micro-financing.

“People don’t want aid as such. People want to live meaningful lives, to earn their own living,” said Ssuuna, a 46-year-old Ugandan residing in Zambia. “Farmers want to farm, but we need to make sure that the systems and institutions that support farming are functional.”

In Mwanje’s village, where the size of the average family is eight people and agriculture has been the source of livelihood for generations, a Zambian NGO called the Green Living Movement has been promoting sustainable agriculture since 2000.

Mwanje said she and other farmers have adopted the practice of agroforestry, in which nitrogen fixing tree legumes are planted in their fields for soil fertility instead of using synthetic fertilizers. The method has helped improve her productivity and her income base, she said.

Even so, efficiency is relatively low due to a lack of basic farming machinery, electricity and irrigation — she still has to draw water from a well and waters the crops with a jerrycan, and pound harvests of maize and soybeans manually with sticks.

Each year, she harvests about 25 to 30 bags of maize, the main crop for income, at 50 kg each. Most is consumed by her family with only an average of five bags left for sale, and each bag fetches 34,000 Zambian kwachas, or approximately $10.

Ssuuna explained that although the recent surge in global food prices should in theory be an opportunity for African farmers, in places like Zambia, where crop prices are set by the Food Reserve Agency and rural farmers have poor access to open markets, the price hikes only profit the agency and middlemen traders while farmers get paid little for their produce.

Japan, to show its leadership as this year’s G8 chair, has pledged to double aid to Africa by 2012 and help double rice production on the continent as part of medium- to long-term assistance in tackling the food security issue.

But both Mwanje and Ssuuna expressed doubt about promoting rice in Africa.

“I once tried to grow rice in our field, but the harvest was not good and we didn’t get any rice grains to eat. May be water was not enough,” Mwanje said. She added that while she tried for one season because she liked rice, she never went back to growing it again.

Ssuuna noted that while consumption of rice in Africa has risen in recent years, it was partly because rice producers like Japan and other Asian countries have offloaded their large surpluses in Africa. In some cases, the dependence on rice imports have triggered food riots, such as in Sierra Leone, amid the price surges.

“What do we learn from that? If you disrupt people’s production systems and you make them dependent on other production systems for their food, you are creating a catastrophe,” he said.

“I think a more sustainable support system should focus on African indigenous crops that have already been localized and are suitable to the ecosystem in these places,” Ssuuna added.

Mwanje and Ssuuna, with the support of Japanese NGOs, will be in Hokkaido to meet Japanese and international press when the three-day G8 summit begins Monday at the Lake Toya resort.

“We are here to remind the leaders of their failure to meet commitments made in the last several G8 summits,” Ssuuna said. “It’s also important for them to know that when they make these commitments, there are so many people’s hopes and lives that now focus on them.”

“A failure to meet those commitments means they are failing so many people who do not have the voice to represent themselves in the G8, who do not have the means to change their own lives.”

Ethiopian Sigd made official State holiday. Knesset decides to include Ethiopian holiday in official holiday calendar. Holiday’s history, traditions, ceremonies to be included in educational system’s curriculum

Published:     07.02.08, www.ynetnews.com

The Knesset plenum decided to formally add the Ethiopian Sigd holiday to the list of State holidays, and will be holding an annual state ceremony for it during the Hebrew month of Heshvan, which usually falls on October or November.

Sigd is a traditional Ethiopian day of fast, dedicated to prayers for the rebuilding of the Temple and giving thanks for the right to return to the Holy Land. The fasting ends in mid-day, in a Seder of sorts.

The Ethiopian community in Israel has been celebrating the holiday by holding a mass ceremony in Mount Zion in Jerusalem, topped with a procession to the Western Wall. In the past few years, the ceremony has been held in Jerusalem’s Armon Hanatziv Promenade.

The motion was brought before the House by Knesset Member Uri Ariel (National Union-National Religious Party) and was widely backed by MKs from Shas, Meretz, Labor and the Likud parties.

The motion passed its Knesset readings, effectively becoming a holiday by law. Its main ceremony will be funded by the Prime Minister’s Office; the holiday’s history, traditions and ceremonies will be included in the educational system’s curriculum and going to work during the holiday will be optional.

MK Ariel welcomed the Knesset’s decision, saying it was “upholding the sacred duty Israel has to the blessed Ethiopian immigration, which has enriched Israeli society.”

World News Desk – July 3, 2008 - www.realtruth.org
AFRICA

African Union Seeks to Resolve Zimbabwe Crisis.

The African Union (AU) held its 11th summit, primarily to discuss the political crisis in Zimbabwe. The result wa a call for a national unity government, following the widely condemned run-off re-election of incumben President Robert Mugabe. To escape the ensuing violence, the challenging opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, has withdrawn a week earlier, taking refuge in the Dutch embassy for more than a week.

The meeting of the pan-African summit highlighted a deep division among the continent’s other countries regarding what to do about the Zimbabwean crisis, particularly Mr. Mugabe, who has historically been considered a “liberation hero.” The summit’s resolution fell short of a much stronger statement wanted by some nations.

According to a Reuters report, Botswana, which borders Zimbabwe’s west, called for Mr. Mugabe to be barred from both the AU and the Southern African regional body SADC. Mompati Merafhe, vice-president of Botswana, said that Mr. Mugabe’s participation in African meetings “would give unqualified legitimacy to a process which cannot be considered legitimate.” He added that the government and opposition must be treated as equal in any mediation. Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga made a similar call.

South Africa, the regional power, resisted the stronger statement for the AU, and called for the crisis to be resolved by the SADC, which it chairs. South African President Thabo Mbeki, however, has been criticized for what has been seen as ineffective mediation and favoritism towards Robert Mugabe. The Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), an opposition party to Mr. Mugabe’s Zimbabwe African National Union – Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF), issued a statement: “The MDC’s reservations about the mediation process under President Mbeki are well known. It is our position that unless the mediation team is expanded to include at least one permanent representative from the African Union, and the mediation mechanism is changed, no meaningful progress can be made toward resolving the Zimbabwean crisis. If this does not happen, then the MDC will not be part of such a mediation process.”

In addition, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who just began his six-month presidency of the European Union, said the EU would only accept a Zimbabwean government led by Mr. Tsvangirai, who is generally accepted to have beaten Mr. Mugabe in the first round of the March 29 election.
The AU’s position is tenuous at best, as Mugabe representative George Charamba had earlier rejected any Kenyan-style power-sharing deal, and MDC Secretary-General Tendai Biti more recently said there was no chance of negotiations.

A Christian Science Monitor article pointed out that the AU’s inability to directly rebuke Robert Mugabe regarding an election that its own monitors say “fell short” of AU standards (e.g., due to acts of violence) shows that the body is unable to live up to promises of “African solutions for African problems.”

“This clearly indicates that there are no shared and common values around what good governance is, what democracy is,” said Chris Maroleng, a security analyst at the Institute for Security Studies in Tshwane, South Africa. “A lot of our leaders have questionable democratic credentials, so it’s not surprising that the AU fell short of the mark” (ibid.).

“A government of national unity at this stage is a nonstarter,” Mr. Maroleng added. Unless there is a complete restructuring of the Zimbabwean constitution, a change in the executive powers of the presidency, any power-sharing deal at this point would permanently tilt the advantage, in the favor of Mr. Mugabe. “It’s placing icing over a rotten core. It would look nice, but underneath, it would still be rotten” (ibid.).

In the meantime, the U.S. was preparing a United Nations resolution calling for economic sanctions against Robert Mugabe and 11 of his compatriots, as well as imposing an embargo on arms sales or military hardware to Harare. The position was to express “deep concern at the gross irregularities during the June 27 run-off presidential election (and) the violence and intimidation perpetrated in the run-up to the election that made impossible the holding of free and fair elections” (Reuters).

All the while, the people of Zimbabwe continue to endure severe financial and social hardship.

Sunday, June 29, 2008

EDITORIAL The Japan Times online.  http://search.japantimes.co.jp/mail/ed20…

Subtle change in the Middle East.

It did not take long before the ceasefire that went into effect on June 19 between Israel and Hamas was tested. The launch of rocket attacks last week from the Gaza Strip into Israeli territory prompted Tel Aviv to launch an armed incursion, leaving the truce tattered, but not yet terminated. Peace must be restored.

Obscured amid the confusion was one important development: the beginnings of a dialogue, however tentative, between Israel and Hamas. This could be the first step toward real peace in the region.

Egypt, which controls one of the borders of the Gaza Strip, has worked for months to broker a truce between Israel and Hamas, the militant group that wrested control of the territory last year from the Palestinian Authority (PA) and is now trying to prove that it can govern as well as it can lead the armed struggle against both Israel and the PA. Cairo’s efforts culminated in an agreement that called for a complete end to mutual attacks in and around the Gaza Strip.

Israeli security forces killed two Palestinian militants Tuesday in the town of Nablus, which is in the West Bank and, according to the Israelis, not part of the agreement. The militants were from Islamic Jihad, a radical group that responded with rocket launches from inside the Gaza Strip. Israel rightly denounced the attacks as a “grave violation” of the truce and closed the border with Gaza. Israel kept the border closed after a rocket attack Thursday.

Hamas’ instinct is to escalate, but it has very good reasons to look for ways to restore the truce; indeed, both sides do. Hamas wants the borders open after a yearlong closure brought considerable hardship to most residents of the Gaza Strip. Despite substantial aid and assistance, Gaza today is one of the poorest areas in the Middle East.

The Tel Aviv government has launched attacks against Gazans as well, in retaliation for the frequent rocket and mortar attacks on Israeli civilians living near the Gaza Strip.

Hamas wants some relief, not only to end the suffering of those people but to demonstrate that it can govern. Both sides also launched negotiations for a prisoner swap that would win the release of an Israeli soldier held captive in Gaza since 2006.

While trying to persuade them to honor the agreement, Hamas has said it will not enforce the truce against other Palestinian groups. That policy is not good enough.

An essential — if not defining — attribute of government is its monopoly on the use of force within its territory. If Hamas is not willing to enforce that monopoly, then it does not deserve to be considered the ruling authority in Gaza.

To make its point, Israel has decided to respond to violations of the ceasefire with border closings. After three days, the flow of goods will increase, and then a week later, will increase yet again, to include other essential items, such as fuel. Each time the truce is broken, the clock will restart. That is a structured and measured response that should give Hamas incentive to step up its efforts to enforce the deal.

Apart from the hope that the agreement can end the violence and provide some relief to the long-suffering Palestinians, this truce is significant because it represents the first real engagement between Israel and Hamas.

Israeli officers insist that Egypt produced the real compromise and that “the Israeli position regarding Hamas as a terror organization has not changed one iota.” But the truth is the truce constitutes de facto recognition of Hamas — and that should give the Islamic group even more incentive to enforce the agreement.

Israel’s readiness to deal with Hamas would make it more difficult for others — such as the United States and other Western governments — to refuse to do so. And if it can deliver on a real peace, then Hamas will have shown the world that it can do what Mr. Abbas cannot: Enforce a peace among militant Palestinians.

If Hamas can take control of the border with Egypt — it is currently in negotiations with the PA and Cairo to do just that — then it will have demonstrated yet another attribute of a functioning government.

Peace aside, this is the real significance of the truce. It is the first critical step in Hamas’ struggle for international legitimacy. The world should encourage the group to continue down this path, to give up violence in exchange for recognition and the right to rule the Palestinian people. It is a long process, but these past weeks have marked the first tentative, and vital, steps forward.

———–

so, we were right all along in having two buttons for Palestine - The Bank and Hamasstan. In the meantime the two areas are being governed separately. The PA has no power in The Bank and even less in Gaza. If Hamas proves it can handle Gaza better, and Israel agrees to talk to them - then the Japanese see here a road to peace. It can be assumed that a President Obama, despite what others at Japan Times think, will also come along and help in negotiations for Middle East peace.

Further, let us note that the last moves were done without US help, and perhaps even in spite of a n Administration’s position of not talking to terrorists.