Jo-Ann writes for Dissent,

Palestinians still don’t have a state, but as of this week they do have a new prime minister: Dr. Rami Hamdallah, appointed by Abbas on June 2 and sworn in today. Politically, Hamdallah is known as a moderate, but that is almost beside the point. He is a caretaker prime minister who will face the same problems Fayyad did, but with an extra handicap: Fayyad, once a high official of the World Bank, had international recognition and some political seasoning (he had run in a party independent of Fatah for the Palestinian legislature), while Hamdallah is a lifelong academic.

. . .

Even as the hardliners inside Israel’s current government continue to proclaim that there is no partner for peace, the fact is that this is the second time that the Palestinian Authority has had a government whose leadership is explicitly against terrorism and overtly tempered by academia and democratic yearnings—unprecedented in the Arab world today. This is no small feat—and one that could yield major rewards for the entire region—but, sadly, it may continue to be a missed opportunity for resolution between the Israelis and the Palestinians.

Read the full post here.