Israel releasing 250 Palestinians as sign of good faith.

The latest progress made on the ground between Israel and the Palestinians comes by Israel announcing it will release 250 prisoners it is holding. All of them are from Fatah, not Hamas, boosting President Mahmoud Abbas. This is real progress and a trust builder and all done without Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's involvement or negotiations on behalf of the two parties.

An excerpt from the story: "The move followed an amnesty deal over the weekend that saw nearly 200 armed fugitives from Abbas' Fatah movement sign pledges renouncing militant activity in return for guarantees that Israel would stop hunting them."

Hopefully this small step will show Palestinians the way forward is to denounce violence and search for peace for all of their families.

To read the entire story by AP writer Laurie Copans, click here.

UPDATE 2:45pm PST

It looks like President Bush wants to take some credit for some small steps in Israel and is now sending Condoleezza Rice to pull together a Middle East peace conference. Bush wants to get in front of this because if there are some peace overtures and he isn't involved, they might actually achieve some peace. This Administration loves war as they feed "booty" to their buddies through the government no-bid contracts. War, any war, is terrific for business. And if you think I am kidding look at the 2007 Federal Budget for the Dept. of Defense. It was officially $450 Billion, the largest allocation of any other government agencies, including HomeLand Security and is not included in the $450 Billion, and it doesn't include the $10 Billion per month for the Iraq war. Tell me that there's an interest for peace. Ha!