AS a result of Tuesday’s parliamentary vote of confidence, the new Hamas government was sworn in yesterday under Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh. Tuesday also saw Israelis voting for a new coalition, dominated by the Kadima party led by Ariel Sharon’s successor, Ehud Olmert. It normally takes weeks before Israeli coalition governments are wheeled and dealed into existence but the decks are effectively now clear for the far more important talks between the Palestinians and Israelis.

Pessimists believe Hamas and Kadima are publicly so far apart that even that band aid of modern diplomacy — talks about talks — seems out of the question. Olmert told Israeli electors that whatever Palestinians said, he intended to continue Sharon’s unilateral tactics in Gaza and withdraw from some parts of the West Bank while hanging on to a great tranche of Palestinian land, including East Jerusalem. Hamas, for its part, told Palestinian electors it would not recognize Israel’s right to exist nor would it renounce violence as precursors for renewed peace talks. There seems no obvious point at which either party could meet. But this is to ignore the change that has occurred on both sides of the argument. The Israelis are no longer content to continue with the ambiguity and increasing expense of their occupation. They want peace. UN resolutions condemning their illegal occupation of Palestinian land will never worry them as long as a faithful Washington is ready to block any proposed sanctions in the Security Council. There is, however, now a popular desire for an end to the turmoil and violence that has disfigured Israeli life since the first Intifada.

Hamas, the group which now represents the Palestinians, played a leading role in that terrible violence. While moderate Palestinians tried and failed to negotiate a just settlement, the grim tattoo of Palestinian bombers beat out in Israeli towns and cities. Die-hard Zionists welcomed the terror and the excuse it gave to suspend, and finally break off, negotiations under the Oslo Accord. Now, of course Hamas is the duly elected government which has within its gift the ability to suspend the violence and acknowledge the existence of Israel within borders yet to be defined.

This is exactly the position of Israel which can cease its assassinations and other violence and accept Palestine’s right to exist within agreed frontiers. For the first time since 1947, it could be argued that Palestinians and Israelis effectively face each other on equal terms. Each has a full quiver of concessions. What is disturbing is that the international community does not seem to appreciate that this new balance offers the best ever starting point for a real settlement. No one expects the Americans, with their narrow world view and purblind support for Israel, to recognize the opportunity. The Europeans ought to be a different matter. By sticking to the phony position that Hamas is a terrorist organization which cannot be talked to until it renounces everything it stands for, they are fettering their ability to intervene subtly and positively in a Middle East where blundering diplomacy has done little but create chaos and ruins.