The House of Commons Foreign Affairs Select Committee has issued advice that the British Government, through Tony Blair in his new role, ought to be talking to Hamas. It is quite a risk. After all, Hamas has been responsible for encouraging suicide-bomb attacks against Israel. None the less: \u201cWe recommend that he engage with Hamas in order to facilitate reconciliation amongst Palestinians.\u201d\u009d<\/p>\n
This is the right thing to do, for it is just this sort of risky talk, often clandestine, that led to peace in Northern Ireland. No peace will ever come without a willingness to sit around a table and talk.<\/p>\n
This is why the refusal of a number of Anglican bishops to accept the Archbishop of Canterbury\u2019s invitation to the Lambeth Conference looks so childish and lacking in moral imagination (Press, 27 July). From Sydney to Nigeria to Winchester, there have been bishops toying with the idea that they might refuse to sit down and talk to other bishops. This is an out-and-out scandal, and has nothing whatsoever to do with homosexuality.<\/p>\n
It is a scandal because church leaders might talk the talk about peace, but some just don\u2019t walk the walk when it involves themselves.<\/p>\n