Quote: ""President Mahmoud Abbas has instructed me to travel to Brussels tomorrow morning to meet with Solana, to give him the text of the accord and to explain to him what this accord aims to do," Nabil Amr told a press conference. "I am also going to meet with the foreign ministers of Norway and of Germany, the current president of the European Union," Amr said, adding that "emissaries will be dispatched (to numerous countries) to explain the accord."

But Hamas will not recognize Israel's right to exist, nor renounce violence, as demanded by the Quartet. In fact, Hamas stated yesterday that the agreement of the unity government has nothing to do with recognition of Israel at all. And President Abbas' party is no better, today calling for more suicide bombers to attack Jews...

Quote: ""There are martyrs on their way to Israeli cities. We will keep sending bombers until we infiltrate and carry out an attack," Abu Nasser, deputy commander of the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades in the northern West Bank city of Nablus, told WND.

Israel originally stated that the 18 point plan for the unity government was an internal Palestinian affair, and had nothing to do with them. They should have kept to that line of reasoning, for now Israeli Prime Minister Olmert is in the impossible position of having to recognize the government and work with Hamas as a partner for peace. Olmert cannot reject outright the unity government, because that will start off a third intifada and he will get the blame. But he cannot accept it either, without rewarding Palestinian terror. 

Quote: ""We, like the international community, are studying what exactly was achieved, what was said, and what is the basis on which the agreement rests, if it exists, and if it's complete," Olmert said. Earlier Sunday, officials in Jerusalem warned that Israel would cut off its ties with Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas if the demands were not met. In an interview with Army Radio Sunday morning, opposition head MK Binyamin Netanyahu agreed with this position. "Hamas has not moved in the direction of Abbas," Netanyahu said. "Rather, he has moved in the direction of Hamas. If he gives legitimacy to Hamas, then that's bad; if we give legitimacy to Hamas, then that's even worse."

My own thoughts are that the world will cautiously accept the deal, and possibly resume funding on the basis of a long-term truce between Hamas and Israel. After all, they are the ones who put themselves in this position. Former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon made the mistake of disengaging from Gaza, and the Israeli government foolishly listened to the US in allowing Hamas to take part in the elections.

Source EU Business, YNet News, Jerusalem Post