Peretz in dreamland

Israel's defense minister Amir Peretz said two interesting, and utterly embarrassing, things at the Herzliya conference:

"Every Palestinian contact that recognizes Israel, I see as a partner in negotiations - even if we're speaking of Hamas."

The naivete and wishful thinking that is revealed in this statement is overwhelming.

The idea of "recognition" is becoming as popular as the idea of a "peace process," a castle in the clouds. Just because Abbas nominally "recognizes" Israel doesn't mean that he does not want to see it destroyed as soon as possible by Palestinian Arab arms.

And Hamas, by ideology, cannot possibly recognize Israel in any meaningful way and still remain Hamas, so to think that if they mouth the words "recognize" that some magic will occur and they can be dealt with as negotiating partners is too stupid for words.

"In spite of the mistakes, there were important achievements during the war. In the end, we changed the reality in southern Lebanon. We proved that the threats of rockets, the kidnappings, and the terror are not capable of leaving us paralyzed and helpless - and furthermore, we exposed the plans of Iran and Syria."

So, how has the reality in Southern Lebanon changed? Apparently not very much, as the border is now filled with Hezbollah flags again and Hezbollah has already replenished all that it had lost. And if it took a war to expose the plans of Iran and Syria vis a vis Hezbollah, then something is seriously wrong with Israel's ability to tell its side of the story, as everybody knew about Iran's involvement with Hezbollah before the war.