[middle-east update] a peace of sorts

Just to bring us up to speed on the Middle-East, the most recent news I could get was August 26th:

Occasional rocket attacks from the Palestinian enclave, controlled by radical group Hamas, have continued despite a ceasefire agreed on in June. Israel usually responds by shutting border crossings with Gaza, and preventing humanitarian supplies to the region, home to 1.5 million people.

Other news collected in passing:

Israel is developing, by means of visas and passes, a separation of the two states on the West Bank and Gaza, involving three month time periods for travel, the necessity to be married and to be working for humanitarian causes.

... and:

The PRC said the rockets it displayed recently are but a drop in an ocean of surprises in store for Israel should it attempt to reoccupy Gaza, from which it withdrew in 2005. "We have been under siege for the last two years," said Ibrahim Dahman, the only militant who allowed his face to be videotaped, since he already is wanted by Israel. "The only thing left is for them to invade and kill us."

However, all is not well in Iran:

Teheran's former nuclear negotiator Hasan Rowhani said that Ahmadinejad's policies have done more harm than good in his three years in office, adding that the hard-line leader missed out on "golden" opportunities to develop the Persian state.

Speaking to a meeting of the Moderation and Development Party on Monday, Rowani singled out Iran's high inflation - a fact despite huge oil revenues.

He said Ahmadinejad failed to privatize the economy as required under the constitution and didn't use opportunities at the international level to improve Iran's global standing.

Apart from that, the nuclear issue in Iraq and Olmert's corruption charges seem to be the main news.

All in all, in Middle-Eastern terms, it's non-news just now. For how long? And the big question - why won't the Arab states just let Israel be as a nation? Naive question in one sense but fundamental in another.