The release of BBC reporter Alan Johnston has changed things somewhat. It has shown that Hamas is very much in control of the Gaza Strip and will not allow any lawlessness like there was under the PA's rule. It has also demonstrated that Hamas is willing to make deals and able to enforce deals. All of this will be lost on Israel and the Bush administration, but the British are impressed and the UN might be too:
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Israel may not like it, but there are signs that some people in influential positions in the West are changing their view of Hamas after everything it did to release Alan Johnston.
For the new British foreign secretary, David Miliband, it amounted to a change of tone. He welcomed the part played by Hamas, and mentioned its prime minister, Ismail Haniya, by name.
Opening
Others go much further, believing that the policy of isolating Hamas because it will not recognise Israel or renounce violence, is looking threadbare, not least because it seems to play into the hands of the extremists.
A group of British parliamentarians has signed a motion in the House of Commons calling for engagement with Hamas.
The mood was summed up in the final despatch sent back to the UN by its Middle East envoy, Alvaro De Soto, before he retired earlier this summer.
He wrote that Hamas "can potentially evolve in a pragmatic direction that would allow for a two-state solution - but only if handled right".
Long after Alan Johnston gets back to his family in Scotland, the Middle East will still have intractable problems.
His release brought joy to his family and friends, and all the people around the world who supported him while he was a prisoner, but it will not create any political miracles.
But it might provide an opening, and there are not many of those in the Middle East at the moment.
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