Hamas police officers attend a lecture as part of a new training program at Palestinian President Yasser Arafat Police Academy in Gaza City. (Wissam Nassar, Maan Images)

The balance of talk and action in the Middle East has not swung from war-making to peace-making, but it is inching in the direction of testing the negotiating waters. I am less skeptical than most observers about the meaning of the simultaneous Israeli negotiations with Syria, Hamas, Hizbullah, and the Palestinian Authority, and Israel's offer to negotiate directly with Lebanon.

Beware of simplistic, extreme interpretations: This is neither a meaningless, coincidental convergence of happy negotiators, nor a dramatic, purposeful shift from wasteful war to a more humane approach to nonviolent conflict resolution. A few things stand out in the current situation.

First, this is the third time in three years that Hamas has forced Israel into accepting a cease-fire, after Israel tried every aggressive, punitive, and occasionally barbaric method to compel Hamas to surrender and change its ways - including starvation, strangulation, mass imprisonment, hundreds of assassinations, and severe political sanctions and ostracism. Three times in three years David has forced Goliath to sit down and talk things over. This is the stuff of biblical epics.

Second, Hamas' performance and posture are indicative of wider trends that have probably pushed Israel into exploring diplomatic possibilities instead of relying mainly on its ability to kill and colonize Arabs, and on Washington's blind support that verges on criminal complicity in Israel's disregard for international law and United Nations resolutions. Technical and political dimensions of this seem obvious.

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At the technical level, Hamas has clearly imported important prowess in protecting and hiding its rocket launchers, giving it the ability to keep firing rockets at Israel despite repeated Israeli attacks. At the political level, Hamas has absorbed important lessons from Hizbullah, Syria and Iran in terms of standing up to and absorbing Israeli-American attacks, threats, pressure and ultimatums, without collapsing or begging for mercy.

Third, Israel seems to have grasped the fact that Washington's advice is lethal, and best ignored when real Israeli national interests are at stake. The US has persistently pushed Israel to either boycott or attack Hizbullah, Hamas and Syria, and instead Israel is now negotiating with all three of them at once. The assertion of Israeli perspectives over American ones in this realm is healthy - because Israeli policy will always be shaped by realistic and existential dictates, while American policy towards the Arab-Israeli conflict is largely dictated by a stunning combination of spinelessness, shamelessness and senselessness.

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