Letters From A Tory Daily views on British politics and the Conservative Party from a centre-right thinker who writes letters on his blog to politicians, journalists and many others.

Dear Robert Fisk,

As a highly-regarded political commentator, I am often keen to read your perspective on international politics.  Your views on the recent Israeli-Palestinian commitment to talks over the coming year are as sceptical and cynical as mine, albeit for slightly different reasons.

There is certainly a feeling of ‘we have heard this all before’ about the future peace talks.  This is not necessarily a problem, as there must be willing on both sides if we are to even get close to a peaceful agreement.  However, the fact that Hamas is still excluded from discussions is a disgrace in my opinion and is likely to cause a serious backlash at some point before the end of 2008.  You mentioned the role of President Bush, and I for one would go much further than you in terms of the significance attributed to his involvement.  Here we have a President who is hated by the world and by his own people, a President who has declared war on Iraq and Afghanistan and has done nothing other than destroy these two nations and turn their citizens against him, a President who only has a few months left and is desperate to be remembered fondly in the history books.  It all feels so fake, so hollow.

I look forward to your ongoing commentary on this issue.  I sincerely hope it ends well, but like you I think it will fall well short of peace.

A.Tory