Condi has brokered a deal that will ease international pressures on Israel, and hopefully help the lives of average Palestinians — if it is adhered to by Palestinians and Egyptians, that is. And there’s a big footnote. From the Beeb:

Israeli, Palestinian and EU officials have welcomed a deal to reopen Gaza’s border with Israel and Egypt.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice brokered the deal which sees the Rafah border due to open on 25 November. …

It will allow Palestinians to travel in bus convoys between Gaza and the West Bank starting in a month, and in lorry convoys a month after that.

Its other provisions include:

- Beginning construction of a sea port for Gaza, and further discussions about an airport

- Allowing the urgent export from Gaza of all the agricultural produce of the 2005 harvest

- The reduction of obstacles to movement in the West Bank, which Israel still controls. …

The deal also includes video surveillance of the Rafah crossing to Egypt by a joint EU-Palestinian team.

Israel will have access to the video via the Europeans, but will not have veto power over individuals moving through Rafah, as it had wanted.

That last sentence make me nervous, re: security. As thanks for Israel’s concessions:

Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas delivered a harsh criticism of Israel shortly after she [Rice] left.

In a speech marking the Palestinian declaration of independence in 1988, he accused Israel of wanting to push the Palestinians into civil war.

Let’s see. Israel withdraws from Gaza, starts relinquishing security control, and Abbas refuses to crack down on the terrorists causing the chaos there. Just how does this “push the Palestinians into civil war?” By the way, a civil war will be necessary if Palestinians are to implement the rule of law. There can be no indepenedent Palestinian state with Islamic Jihad, Hamas, etc., running terrorist operations against Israeli civilians.