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Breakthrough in Bethlehem
Palestinian police officers flash V-signs as they emerge from the Church of the Nativity (AP) Email to friend
Another fuse pinched in the Middle East: Late last night, Palestinians left the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, some to freedom, some to the Gaza Strip. But 13 men described by the Israeli government as ?hard-core terrorists? have been flown to Larnaca, Cyprus, the first stop on the road to exile.
That the Manger Square confrontation has ended is good news. That it ended because Europe agreed to take the men is the real news. Europe, so often sidelined in the American-driven diplomacy in the Middle East, may yet have a greater role to play.
And now, as the world?s focus shifts from a holy site in Bethlehem to the occupied desert around Gaza, it also hones in on the rift between American and European sentiment vis-?is the Middle East. Prospects for peace, in the shadow of a transatlantic divide.
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Stephen Walt, professor of International Politics at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at the JFK School of Government
David Malone, president of the International Peace Academy
Hamdi Farraj, director, Shepherd's TV in Bethlehem
