Israel vows ceasefire; Hamas not so much

The Washington Post reports that Israel may declare a unilateral ceasfire in Gaza;

Olmert said Israeli troops would hold their fire starting at 2 a.m. local time Sunday but would remain in Gaza indefinitely. He said a withdrawal would depend on whether Hamas would also stop fighting and launching rockets into southern Israel.

“If they stop firing, we will consider leaving Gaza at a time that is suitable to us,” he said in a televised address to the Israeli public.

Seems reasonable, doesn’t it? All Hamas has to do is stop firing missiles like the 3000 they fired during the 6-month ceasefire. So Hamas, after being battered and bloodied for the last few weeks should jump at it, right? Well, those fun-loving, cazy dudes at Hamas don’t;

Prior to the cease-fire announcement, Hamas leaders said the Islamist movement would continue to fight until Israel withdrew its forces from Gaza and ended its 18-month economic blockade of the Palestinian territory.

Hamas sounds like they have the upper hand, don’t they? Osama Hamdan, Hamas’ representative to Syria, from his suite in the Damascus Ramada, moving aside the veils of the 72 virgins in his bed (OK, I made that up) was characteristically (for a coward not anywhere near the fighting) defiant (Times Online).

Israeli sources said the ceasefire would make Hamas responsible for any fresh clashes. But Hamas was not a party to the deal and Osama Hamdan, a top official based in Lebanon, said after Mr Olmert’s announcement that the group would continue to attack Israeli forces.

So, let’s see how long Hamas can keep their rockets in their collective pocket. Odds are they’ll provoke another offensive by Israel and given a complete pass from the “industrialized” countries because Hamas wasn’t “a party to the deal”.

Gabriel Malor at AoSHQ quotes Juan Cole threatening that Israel shouldn’t cause the media to show dead Palestinian children during the Inauguration and ruin it for everyone. Don Surber writes that Isreal just ran out of targets.

Category: Foreign Policy, Politics, Terror War