Don’t you just love happy endings? Hamas, Fatah vow peaceful end to Palestinian problems.

DAMASCUS (Reuters) - Leaders of Palestinian factions including rivals Fatah and Hamas pledged on Tuesday to refrain from violence in settling Palestinian problems after a firefight between Hamas activists and Palestinian police left three dead.

Farouk Kaddoumi, a leader of Fatah — the ruling faction of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, said the exiled leaders of Palestinian groups agreed in Damascus that dialogue should be the only way to solve their disputes.

Listing the decisions of their meetings, Kaddoumi said the leaders agreed to “call all Palestinian powers and factions to ban the use of weapons to solve internal differences…”

“…weapons, after all, are for killing Jews!” Kaddoumi added with a sly nod and a wink.

In a related story, the Christian Science Monitor participates in the greening of Hamas: Can Hamas change course?

(Maybe that should be the un-greening of Hamas?)

Mr. Shalabi, an electrical engineer who works at East Jerusalem’s Al Quads University, is Hamas’ top politician in this middle-class suburb of Ramallah, the West Bank’s Palestinian power center. And, even though his party won less than half of the available seats here in last week’s municipal polls, he appears set to become mayor, aided by a coalition with independents who also won seats in the election.

“Hamas did very well,” says Mr. Shalabi, in a meeting at the local Hamas campaign office. According to official results announced Sunday, Hamas won five of the 13 available seats here. “It’s good that the people will see that the Islamic parties can participate in democracy and can work to develop their societies.”

Hamas, he says, recruited him because of his reputation for being honest. And if he was going to go into politics, he wanted to work only with “qualified professional people,” he says. “I found those qualities in Hamas.”