Niall Ferguson: Mid-East Headed for Armageddon ...

When a man as brilliant as Niall Ferguson spells out potential for disaster, we all better at least pay some damn attention ... this cannot be ignored or denied or squeezed in between Paris Hilton's jail term and the opening weekend gross for the new Fantastic Four flick (which happened to be terrible by the way) ...

This heat is a recipe for Armageddon
By Niall Ferguson, Sunday Telegraph
Last Updated: 12:01am BST 17/06/2007

Divide and rule was an old maxim of Britain's Empire. In the Middle East today, there's certainly no shortage of division. But who is ruling as a result? Any lingering hopes of a two-state solution to the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians evaporated last week as the Islamist extremists of Hamas seized control of the Gaza Strip. President Mahmoud Abbas, the leader of the more secular Fatah party, now finds himself president of the West Bank only. The next Middle Eastern peace plan will have to be a three-state solution: Israel, Hamastan and Fatahland.

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