NEWS: Cease Fire in Gaza

POLITICS: Cease Fire in Gaza

The vast majority of the news coming out of the Middle East these days is pure misery. That's why it's such so nice to see the occasional nice things that give some hope that we won't all kill each other over and even people who really hate one another can sometimes come to an agreement. This is one. The Israelis and Palestinians have agreed to a cease-fire in Gaza.

Olmert had previously rejected Abbas's offer to stop rocket attacks in exchange for a full Israeli military cooldown, insisting on the same from the Palestinians. It appears that at least for the most part, that is what has happened.



Obvoiusly not everyone is happy.

Olmert would be a fool to think that Abbas, or anyone else for that matter, can control the actions of every single individual living in Gaza. But stopping the coordinated rocket attacks on Israel is a major step in the right direction, and the cessation of Israeli air strikes and ground assaults will go a long way towards to lessening Palestinian hostility against them. If both sides adhere to the agreement. Still a large "if," but one that everyone will benefit from.

How many cease-fires have there been this year?

These people will never stop fighting until they've blown each other off the face of the Earth.

They come and go, but least it shows that Abbas is trying to exert some pressure on the more militant people in Gaza to stop attacking and try to end this conflict.

What's the over-under on this? 2 weeks?

I hope it lasts. A prisoner swap would help. Gene Shalit for 200 prisoners and a promise to shave that stupid mustache.

Here's hoping...

Rockets Launched

I hope this leads to something.

In order for it to work, Israel needs to not respond militarity to small breaches of the ceasefire by rogue elements in palestine, they should support the palestinian attempts to control them as best they can. Israel needs to stop all attacks on Gaza AND the West Bank and needs to prevent the zionist settlers from taking over any more land (or even better, return stolen land back to the Palestinian people) It will be impossible to maintain a ceasefire if Israel continues to provoke the extremists.

I'm feeling cheerful, I'll give it three weeks.

You seem to be putting a lot of the weight on Israel. What exactly does the PA have to do or is simply saying there is a cease fire while extremists groups still fire rockets good enough for you?

Last night the cease fire WAS broken by Palestinian extremists and Israel has not responded as a sign of good faith. As more rockets continue to hit Israel will eventually respond and attack the rocket sites, rocket factories, and the militant leadership who authorise the rockets. If the PA wants to be a government then they need to act like one and control their citizens because blaming it on rogue elements will only last for so long.

Leaving aside the surreal effect you generate by demanding that a government control its citizens...

- Israel has the power here. Economically, militarily, Israel has the power. That makes it incumbent on Israel to take more of the weight.

- Israel's government has a working economy and a national structure behind it. The PA has not. That makes it harder for them to do anything.

But that is a sideline. The problem, as much as anything, is that extremists are given power by the demand for a complete ceasefire. Olmert's brave action in ignoring this morning's provocation is the only way to sidestep the extremists. Otherwise, the whole mess will just lumber brutally onward.

I think he's right about a government controlling it's citizens...when it comes to things like firing off military scale weapons.

I would certainly expect some government to react...be it local, state, or federal, if I were to start firing an automatic rifle or rockets into Canada from Across Lake Ontario.

I agree that Isreal is in a better position to control its forces, being that it is a fully formed government with a military that is beholden to the orders issued from it.

but hadees' point that, if the PA want to be taken seriously as a government of the Palestinians, they have to show some ability to control their military. and show at least an inclination to stop...and prosecute...those "rogue elements" that would endanger the cease fire that they agreed upon.

as long as the extremists' rockets fall into empty fields and don't harm anyone, it is relatively easy for Isreal to remain staid and restrained. but what happens if a rocket hits a town center or market and kills three or four people.
and even beside that... do the Isreali people expect their government to WAIT until that sort of event?

I hope the cease-fire remains in place and allows for greater peace talks to move forward. I do not, however, have any real faith that that will be the case.

+1

now would be the time to attack

I completely agree.

The extremists only have power when they have something they can claim they are fighting against. As soon as the dominant power stops fighting back, justification for continued resistance evaporates. It will not dissolve overnight, there will be factions dedicated to the fighting for years to come, but the correct response is to treat them as criminal threats, not military threats, and eventually they will be completely marginalised and pose little threat. There might still be sporadic attacks for years to come, that has to be accepted and dealt with appropriately. Asking the Palestinians to wipe out anti israeli sentiment completely, is like expecting any country in the world to wipe out all kinds of crime. You can't hold everyone responsible for the actions of the few.

In Northern Ireland this week, a loyalist militant breached security at the national assembly and threw pipe bombs into the parliament.and threatened to assasinate the nationalist leadership. He was arrested and he will be sent back to jail. That was the correct response. If it had led to a military deployment by either side, N.I. would be right back in the middle of a war.

Olmert makes an offer.
Rocket attacks aside, I think Israel would take it as a major step in the right direction were the Hamas controlled Palestinian government to renounce it's platform of driving Israel into the sea.

Good for Olmert.

I agree re Hamas' platform. But it's hard to see how to achieve this while the majority of Gazans see themselves as economically oppressed by Israel. That will tend to radicalise the people who just want to get on with their lives; and they are the only hope of peace.

So, I think Olmert needs to offer some sort of guarantee of economic security as a carrot. I'm thinking about something like a treaty of economic noninterference regardless of the security situation. (Barring all-out war, I guess.)