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Gaza Left Out of Mideast Peace Talks
(Washington Post) William Booth and Anne Gearan - As Secretary of State John Kerry prepares to publicly present outlines of a proposed Israeli-Palestinian peace deal, Gaza is the rarely mentioned elephant in the bargaining room - a huge obstacle to a permanent settlement of the conflict. Kerry has confined his peacemaking to Palestinians in the West Bank. That means that if a deal could be done right now, the 1.6 million people who live in Gaza - about 40% of the population in the two Palestinian territories - would essentially be left out. "Gaza and Hamas represent the real conundrum of the peace process. You can't do a conflict-ending deal without them, and you can't do one with them either," said Aaron David Miller, a U.S. adviser in failed peace negotiations in which Gaza played a central role. "Nobody talks about Gaza and Hamas, because nobody has the slightest idea of how to deal with the challenges these issues pose," Miller said. U.S. officials say Kerry is dealing with Abbas because he is the only Palestinian leader U.S. and Israeli leaders could realistically engage. Like the U.S., Israel considers Hamas a terrorist group, funded partly by Iran.