Johnston freed!

And we have the Hamas take over of Gaza to thank for it. But will the media ever state that? Possibly:

Alan's captivity provided an opportunity for Hamas to demonstrate that they could impose order on Gaza where Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president and his Gazan allies such as Mohammed Dahlan had failed.

Hamas received early rewards. Richard Makepeace, the British consul general in Jerusalem, became the first Western diplomat to meet Ismail Haniyeh, the prime minister. British officials insisted the only reason for the meeting was to discuss the fate of Alan, but the precedent was set and the recognition was granted.

Wow so you can actually negotiate with 'terrorists'? Unless, I suppose, they're powerful enough to fly F-16s...

UPDATE: some of my Palestinian contacts have told me there are murmurs Hamas was behind the kidnapping in the first place. The release of Johnston was therefore timed to maximise its political mileage for Hamas. This scenario is far from implausible but is pure hearsay at this stage. Watch this space...

UPDATE PART II: as far as I can tell the group to which the kidnap has been attributed to used to or are affiliated with Hamas. There was a fall out between them and Hamas over the Johnston kidnap. So it appears Hamas was not behind the kidnap. But it is quite possible they knew where he was being held and the decision to negotiate his release around now was based on political expediency. They were recently kicked out of government by President Abbas (under intense pressure and support from the US, Israel, and Europe). Of course it is equally likely that Hamas was only able to negotiate Johnston's release once they were in total control of Gaza. So, overall, Hamas has to be credited with acting professionally and exhibiting not a little bit of political finesse.