Hamas belatedly announces ceasefire
Last night I wrote that the Israelis announced their intention to enact a unilateral ceasefire dependent upon Hamas’ ability to keep their rockets on the ground. Well, Hamas announced their own ceasefire this morning (from BBC);
“We… announce a ceasefire of our factions in the Gaza Strip and we stress that our demand is the withdrawal of the enemy forces from the Gaza Strip within a week, along with the opening of all the crossings for the entry of humanitarian aid, food and other necessities for our people in the Gaza Strip.”
After losing about a thousand of their jihadists, they sound like they’re in a position to make demands, don’t they? Here’s the full text of the statement. BBC adds this comment;
Many people are hoping that a ceasefire will last, but no-one on either side of the border will be surprised if the fighting starts up again, our correspondent adds.
Yeah, no kidding. We can probably expect lots of Hamas rocket rangers to not get the word, or even care that there’s a ceasefire. After all they fired off 3000 rockets during the last six-month ceasefire. In fact, Times Online reports that Hamas fired off five rockets into Israel after the Israelis announced their unilateral ceasefire;
The strategy appeared to be working when Hamas sent at least five rockets towards Sderot and said that it would not stop fighting until all Israeli troops had left Gaza. Israeli aircraft swiftly destroyed the rocket-launching site.
AFP reports that a summit hosted by Egypt is scheduled to begin this week;
Germany, Britain, France, Italy, Spain, Turkey and Jordan will be represented at the meeting in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, an Egyptian government official, who requested anonymity, told AFP.
In Paris, the office of French President Nicolas Sarkozy said he will co-chair the summit along with his Egyptian counterpart Hosni Mubarak, who has sought to broker an end to the fighting under a truce plan.
It’s nice that they’re all going through the motions, but actually, by killing 1200 Hamas fighters, Israel has done more for peace in the region than all of the governments of the world.
Category: Foreign Policy, Terror War
Well, it’s right there in the “Hamas Charter.”
“Treaties, agreements, and negotiations are meaningless.”
Doesn’t anyone read any more?
You’ll notice that the Hamas ceasefire announcement and conditions of it came from Mashaal, the exiled Hamas leader up in Damascus who sits in his air conditioned condo while his boys just had their asses handed to them. And since the Hamas leadership in Gaza has spent the last 12 days hunkered down in a bunker in the basement of a Gaza City hospital, I’m not sure old Mashaal is gonna keep a whole lot of control over the “troops” in Gaza. It was reported that Gaza Hamas leaders were ready to take the Egyptian ceasefire terms last week but Mashaal and Iran forced them not to – well, how many times have we seen this before in the world when those who pull the strings from afar eventually get those strings severed.
This is a great move by Israel. They were out of targets anyway, so declare victory. They get the moral high road by calling off the violence unilaterally, and they are in place to respond when Hamas inevitably keeps shooting rockets.
It also gives the people of Gaza a chance to decide their fate. Keep covering for Hamas and more Israeli rockets will come. Or they can tell the IDF where the militants and their rockets are and save their house, if not their block.
The one thing that Israel should add into the mix is a leaflet drop full of pictures of Palestinians in the West Bank drinking coffee at cafes while NOT ducking rocket fire. Down on the bottom of the photo should be a caption that reads “Peace. Brought to you by the Palestinian Authority and Fatah.”
“It’s nice that they’re all going through the motions, but actually, by killing 1200 Hamas fighters, Israel has done more for peace in the region than all of the governments of the world.”
only 1,200? darn.