Brace yourself, because it's going to get very ugly again.

A suicide bomber blows himself up in Jerusalem, so the Israelis whack Hamas leader Ismail Abu Shanab, prompting Hamas to call off its "ceasefire" and vow revenge.

And so the depressingly predictable cycle of strike and counter-strike resumes and peace looks as distant as ever.

Jerusalem Post: Hamas and Islamic Jihad pull out of cease-fire

Still, some good news -- for the Kurds in particular -- in the apparent capture of "Chemical Ali." Ali Hassan al-Majid is regarded as one of the architects of the Anfal campaign of repression and atrocities against the Kurds, the results of which I witnessed at first hand when I visited Halabja earlier this year.

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