I have to agree with Azred - its mostly symbolic. It's not that Abbas is insincere, just that I doubt he will be able to deliver what he wants. Incidentaly, the "hand of peace" quoted is a much-used phrase in the conflict; there was a funny cartoon on Al-Jazeera about it which I shall try and track down.
Edit:
Found it, it was the one they did for his death. It's pure cheesy and biased sentimentalism of course, but it still made me chuckle when it got to Netanyahu.
[ 01-10-2005, 09:17 PM: Message edited by: shamrock_uk ]