Israel and the Palestinians agreed Sunday to a series of "concrete steps" aimed at paving the way for a final peace agreement later this year, beginning with Israel's pledge to remove some West Bank roadblocks.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, visiting the region for the second time this month in hopes of energize faltering talks, said the moves "constitute a very good start to improving" a Palestinian economy crippled by the Israeli restrictions.

Under the plan that Rice announced, Israel will remove about 50 roadblocks, upgrade checkpoints to speed up the movement of Palestinians through the West Bank and give Palestinians more security responsibility in the town of Jenin with an eye toward looking at "other areas in turn."

The Israelis also pledged to increase the number of travel and work permits it gives Palestinians and to support economic projects in Palestinian towns.

In return, the Palestinians promised to improve policing of Jenin "to provide law and order, and work to prevent terror," according to a State Department statement released shortly before Rice spoke.

(Rest of article)
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080330/.../us_mideast_23

Hopefully, this will help to bring about a mutual and amicable agreement between Israel and Palestine.

who were the parties to this 'agreement'?

if hamas was not - which is my guess - then why would we expect hamas to be bound by its terms?

and when hamas does not conform the israelis will assert that the Palentinian people do not want peace

any progress anticipated by this 'agreement' will be decimated by the failure to have the true representatives of the paries at the negotiation table

israel brings the smoke, we provide the mirrors

__________________
“Mayor Palin fails to have a firm grasp of something very simple: the truth.”

[Frontiersman editorial, 2/7/97]

This is good. Very likely to see a Palestinains state by the end of the year or early next year.

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McCain/Palin 2008
"We make war that we may live in peace"
"Peace is the highest aspiration of the American People. We will negotiate for it, sacrifice for it, we will never surrender for it, now or ever."
"Keep that faith,keep your courage,stick together, stay strong,do not yield,do not flinch,stand up,we're Americans,we'll never surrender they will"
http://members.cox.net/neddy/bobhope_kerfuffles.wmv
http://youtube.com/watch?v=RnfflRNpwKA
http://youtube.com/watch?v=j-QYIP7o2-A

The article only lists proactive steps Israel is taking to remedy the situation. It sounds as though you're saying that Hamas is an enemy of the Palestinian people, and should be slapped down by same. Right?

not at all
i am saying hamas is the elected representative of the Palestinian people
to craft any agreement with which the Palestinians are expected to comply would first require their representative, hamas, to be a party to the agreement
such is not the case, here
israel and its ally, the USA, excluded hamas from any discussion leading to an agreement
i do not anticipate hamas and the Palestinians to comply with the "agreement" but i do anticipate israel citing that non-compliance as a reason israel will not move toward peace discussions

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“Mayor Palin fails to have a firm grasp of something very simple: the truth.”

[Frontiersman editorial, 2/7/97]

They are expanding settlements, nobody really wants peace, everybody knows at the least stop building new settlements and dismantle some if Palestine will have a state but then Bush always new these and is pulling wool over peoples eyes what are the sttlement expansions for

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The Eagle is Mighty, Crows are Many.

I'd be suprised to see this agreement last a week at those road blocks will be put back in place and the work permits revoked when the first suicide bombers start making it to the gates or worse yet through the gates. The Palestinians are seriously self destructive in more ways than one.

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We should invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity. -- Ann Coulter

And the expanding settlements, always saying no more, then they build more the Palestinians say why then they are called self destructive, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7172253.stm
But then they are the new dumbo's and savages and need to be civilized, because they want a place to exist, the foolish Palestinians, nicely welcomed the Jews in the 1920'2 and 30's when whites were hating them rewarded with hatre, reminds one of native Americans here have some food they said to the settlers soon because of lust for another persons possession by Christians they lost everything, Palestinians here Jews leave those whites in Europe don't like you, reward death. Only a fool will trust such charecteristics. Palestinians are self destructive yes for trusting you and trying to help Jews in the 1920's and 30's.

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The Eagle is Mighty, Crows are Many.

Just a little reminder on the Holy City:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerusalem

Just another real estate fight that has been going on since muslims invaded Israel thousands of years ago. One should expect a fight if you build a Mosque on top of what was the most Holy Site of the Jewish people, the Temple Mount. If Jews had invaded Mecca thousands of years ago, and built a Synagogue in the muslims holy site, do you think there would be a fight going on there too?

All because a delusional Muhammad said he traveled there from Mecca in one night:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isra_and_Miraj

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We should invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity. -- Ann Coulter

I have never doubted that everyone should possess what is holy to them, I wish Palestinians would understand this, Jerusalem has been the holy city of Jews of over 3000 years, I mean Islam has Mecca and Medina, okay then Israel should just take Jerusalem and return the rest of the occupied lands, where are the Palestinians supposed to go, of course one longs for what is holy to them, but everybody needs somewhere to reside. What kind of country is split in two, Gaza and West bank cut of from each other, that is sheer nonsense, land needs to be returned.

Arrogance, if Palestinians had a state run properly the last thing they would need are permits to work in Israel. They just keep taking and offering absolutely nothing in return.

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The Eagle is Mighty, Crows are Many.