Palestinian prisoners freed

The Israeli release of 250 Palestinian activists this weekend was designed as a gift of good publicity to Palestinian Mahmoud Abbas. Most of those released were from the Fatah group that he heads, and none were from Hamas, which now controls Gaza. Fatah fighters have announced a cease fire with Israel.

Jonathan Alterman is skeptical about the impact of the gesture:

' "It changes the subject for a while but it doesn't address the fundamental strategic challenges Abbas has," said Jon Alterman, the director of the Middle East Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a national-security research center. "I don't see how this does any more than begin to set him in the right direction."

Video from Aljazeera English follows: