I have no way of checking this, but my suspicion is that President Bush is a keen fan of the Pointer Sisters. Only an early morning presidential workout to their hit song "I’m So Excited" that then embedded itself in Bush’s head, the way morning tunes tend to do, could possibly explain the phraseology he used yesterday to describe the Palestinian situation.

It has barely been noticed, but there has been a change for the better in the Bush administration’s thinking -- or at least talking -- about the Middle East. For the first time in six years, Washington is putting Israeli-Palestinian negotiations near the top of its agenda. For the first time, it wants those negotiations to address the fundamental political issues that divide the two sides and has begun to evoke the need to lay out what the administration calls a political horizon. And for the first time, it seems willing to take a risk.

Israel just marked its 59th birthday and like a typical baby boomer, she tends to vent her frustration at dreams not realized.

Yet a core Israeli dream -- to not only establish a state but to have that state accepted in the Middle East and live at peace with its neighbors -- is within reach. If only Israel -- having finally gotten to yes with the Arab world -- would recognize it.

Amidst all the Middle East doom and gloom, there are at least three reasons for real hope: Israeli, Palestinian and regional.

Under Saudi auspices in the holy city of Mecca, overlooking the sacred Kaaba stone, Palestinian Fatah and Hamas leaderships finally reached a power-sharing deal last week. The deal came 13 months after the Hamas victory in Palestinian legislative elections, and the party’s subsequent inability to form a functioning government in the face of an international boycott, Arab opposition, and an ongoing standoff with President Abbas and his Fatah movement.