Who Dares Wins

This is outstanding.

JERUSALEM (CNN) -- A meeting between Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and newly elected Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has been tentatively scheduled for February 8, Abbas' spokesman, Hassan Abu Libdeh, has said.

He added that the date depends, however, on the outcome of talks between officials representing both leaders.

David Baker, an official in Sharon's office, did not give an exact date.

"The meeting would be in order to make further progress, and it's contingent on Palestinians continuing to fight terror," Baker said Saturday.

Everything reminds me of something from pop culture, and this reminds me of Gladiator, when Marcus Aurelius (played by Sir Richard Harris) states that once Rome was but a dream, so fragile that you could only whisper it, for fear that it would vanish. That's how I feel right now. This truce, this uneasy ceasefire... It's so fragile, that the merest whisper could shatter it into a million pieces.

I dare not hope that this truce will last. I dare not hope that the truce might turn into peace and understanding, and that such a resolution of this issue might lead to the resolution of the related conflicts that have spread almost worldwide... But I must dare to hope.