In his poem "The Geography of the House," W.H. Auden advised, “[L]eave the dead concerns of yesterday behind us: face with all our courage what is now to be.”  A major contribution would be made towards peace in the Middle East if the Western world emphasized the necessity for the two Palestinian factions, Fatah and Hamas, to heed this advice after their public reconciliation on April 23, 2014 after seven years of animosity. After attempts at reconciliation failed in Mecca in 2007, in Cairo in 2011, and in Doha in 2012, the two factions agreed on an arrangement for the Palestinian Authority to set up a new government for a six-month period, after which elections for the president and a legislative body would follow.  This government of technocrats, seventeen ministers not professionally affiliated with any political group, is headed as prime minister by Rami Hamdallah, the 55-year-old former president of An-Najah National University, the largest...(Read Full Article)