Tzipi Snatches Dangled Carrot

Last week, I wrote about Israel's hotly debated leadership. Warhawk Shaul Mofaz and moderate Tzipi Livni are still the two frontrunners for leadership of the Kadima party, and most likely Israel.

But waaa-aaay-yay down at the bottom of that article I wrote about the proverbial dangled carrot in this scenario. The PA had released a statement saying that if Mofaz were elected, the peace process would halt. They even stated that for the current peace plans to proceed, Tzipi has to win.

Oh and then they asked Tzipi to release a few hundred Palestinian prisoners as a show of good faith. I personally was in favor of this move because, just as the article states, such a move would garner the PA some favor among the people, which would give them more power to actually accomplish stuff. But I really did not except Tzipi, and Israel, to come through on it.

And then they did.

According to Haaretz, Israel has approved the release of 200 Palestinian prisoners, some of whom "have blood on their hands," whatever that means.

And Tzipi says:

Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, the leading Kadima candidate to succeed Olmert, said the release showed Palestinians that dialogue, not violence, achieved the best results.