I'm not sure I've ever seen bigger crowds than the ones that gathered in Lebanon yesterday to hear Hezbollah's Nasrallah speak. From Al Jazeera's camerawork, it seemed as though half the country had poured into the streets. Nasrallah, accusing Israel of the assassination of Imad Mughniyeh, threatened renewed war and the destruction of Israel itself. Tensions over Mughniyeh's death have Israel tightening their security.
Mubarak sees "slow progress" in Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, but says America needs to do more follow-up.
In the West Bank, protests erupted over the death of a Hamas-affiliated imam held in a Palestinian jail, deepening the antagonism between Hamas and Fatah.
And in a controversial move, the mayor of Sderot, the Israeli town often targeted in rocket attacks, has told the press he is willing to negotiate with Hamas.

The mayor told The Guardian that a dialogue with Hamas offers Israel the best alternative to a major military offensive in Gaza, which would result in "innocent people being killed on both sides."
"Maybe one day in the future we will lose our patience and our values and invade," he said. "Imagine 20 kids [in Sderot] being killed in a kindergarten by a missile - then the Israel government would have to act and would lose its morality. If we don't talk we go deeper and deeper into war. If we don't talk we should fight."

Negotiations would be difficult, but it would also be worthwhile to try, I think. I applaud the mayor's courage in speaking out.
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