israel and palestine hold hands, grin sheepishly

More positive steps are being taken by Israel and Palestine to resolve their billion-year-old conflict. The Palestinian Interior Ministry has "begun placing restrictions on the use of weapons by militants" (presumably, non-militant citizens are still allowed to carry concealed machine guns), and Israel has agreed on plans to hand over control of the second of five West Bank towns to the Palestinians.

Not everything is guns 'n' roses though. Israel is violating the "road map" peace plan by approving the construction of 3500 housing units in a West Bank settlement, and both sides violated the current "informal" ceasefire in two separate incidents on Sunday.