I'm Sorry, but I can't get too excited

Israeli and Palestinian Leaders Pledge to Halt Attacks

[S]HARM EL-SHEIK, Egypt, Feb. 8 - The new Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon declared an effective cease-fire here today in the four-year, low-intensity war known as the intifada.

Mr. Abbas said that he and Mr. Sharon "have jointly agreed to cease all acts of violence against Israelis and Palestinians everywhere."

Call me a pessimist but I have to ask; how many times do we have to go down this road before we figure out it's a dead end? I may be part of the "Give Peace a Chance" generation but I'm also a member of the reality based community so I have to ask; Who are Abbas and Sharon speaking for?

In Beirut, a Hamas spokesman, Osama Hamdaneh, said the cease-fire "does not commit the Palestinian resistance" because it was not fully negotiated with Hamas and all Palestinian prisoners were not released. In Gaza, another Hamas spokesman, Mushir al-Masri, said the Abbas declaration "expresses only the position of the Palestinian Authority and does not express the point of view of the factions," and he insisted that "the summit hasn't led to anything new and the Israeli position hasn't changed."

Jazz had a post over at Running Scared this morning where it was reported that....

....Radical Jewish Cleric Yitzhak Batzri announced that the faithful at 100 synagogues around the country would be praying this week for the failure of an upcoming summit between Ariel Sharon and Mahmud Abbas, the new Palestinian leader.

We have been here before and it only led to more violence because we have generations on both sides that have been taught to hate and that the other side is occupying land that rightly belongs to them because "God" said so. Don't hold your breath waiting for peace and love to break out.
Update
Joe Gandelman tells us that the Christian Science Monitor reports that some think it's different this time:

This time around, analysts say, some key variables have changed. In Israel's view, the biggest difference is the death of Yasser Arafat, whom it and the US shunned for alleged ties to terrorism.

Although I agree that Arafat was an obstacle he was only one of many and the rest remain including Sharon himself.