Meanwhile Yossi Beilin, a former Labour minister, and Yasser Abed Rabbo, a former minister in the Palestinian Authority, has signed a similar agreement, known as the Genevaaccord, after two years of dogged negotiation.
Mr. Obama has also ordered that al Qaeda leaders are to be protected from "outrages on personal dignity" and "humiliating and degrading treatment" in accord with the Geneva Conventions.
It is interesting to note on this point that the draft CW accord now being developed in Geneva would require only that sixty countries have to enroll before the treaty enters into force.
By dignifying as an international conflict virtually any "progressive" guerilla operation, this accord helps transform terrorists into protected combatants for the purposes of the Geneva Conventions.