The Gaza Palestinians celebrated the Hamas-Fatah ceasefire with rifle fire for over an hour. Can these people do anything without gunshots? With Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah monitoring the event, Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah and Khaled Mashal of Hamas affixed their signatures to a document whose meaning everybody is exaggerating. Read the articles in The Jerusalem Post and Ha'aretz, and the text of the detente published in the latter. You'll see what I mean. I believe that this was an honorable effort by the Saudis, who have an intense interest in pacifying the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. One reason is that Riyadh requires a stable and strong Israel if the kingdom is to be able to be the protector of Sunni interests in the Middle East. It may not have many fight-ready battalions. But it does have gold. It also has the Jewish state which, ever so silently and ever so invisibly, is a long-term player in its defense. This is a role that Israel has played for Jordan for perhaps sixty or seventy years. In a certain way, Israel has been very helpful to Egypt, as well. Certainly, Egypt has not reciprocated except to the extent that it needs to persuade Washington that it is central to the defense of peace in the region. The problem is that Egypt is crumbling day by day. The only people who don't seem to see this are the professionals at Foggy Bottom. For months, Mubarak's men tried to knock the heads of Hamas and Fatah together in Gaza. They failed utterly. But once the leaders of the two gangs got together in Mecca, under the watchful eyes of the monarch, they could at least agree on the writing of a text. Now, we'll see what its words mean. You will not be surprised to read that I think they won't mean much. And you'll be hearing the gunshot again, not fired into the skies but at people's chests and hearts.