Old Reactionaries Die Hard...

… at the Arab League, not surprisingly. According to the AP, their latest meeting in Algeria ended up more or less status quo ante:

During preparatory talks, Jordanian Foreign Minister Hani al-Mulqi complained about the failure of Arab nations to adapt with changing times, delegates said. Al-Mulqi tried in vain to persuade fellow ministers to accept his country’s peace proposal, arguing that doing so amounted not to making concessions to Israel but to “reality,” the delegates said. Syria, Lebanon, Sudan and Yemen led the fight to reject the Jordanian proposal.

I wonder how long Lebanon will be voting with the thugopoly of Syria, Yemen and the Sudan. Not very, I hope. Of course, this whole event was basically irrelevant to the events on the ground. Those seem to be progressing faster than the troglodyte leaders of the Arab League can grasp. The Israelis just returned Tul Karm to the Palestinians. More surprisingly, from the same Haaretz article, comes the following encouraging news:

Meanwhile, the Palestinian Interior Ministry has begun placing restrictions on the use of weapons by Palestinian militants, Palestinian security officials said Monday, a step toward fulfilling a long-standing Israeli demand that the armed groups be dismantled.

A Palestinian security official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the Interior Ministry has distributed a letter outlining weapons restrictions to hundreds of militants in the West Bank.

The restrictions limit militants to a single weapon, and bar them from loading the weapons or carrying them in public, the official said. He said the measure obligates militants to license the weapons with the Interior Ministry and forbids them from changing their serial numbers.

Many militants possess more than one weapon.

The ministry has asked militants to sign the letter, a copy of which was obtained by The Associated Press.

The release of the letter coincides with Israeli demands that Palestinian officials gather illegal weapons.

Israel welcomed the Palestinian move.