Poll: Most Israelis Want Truce With Hamas

Very interesting that most Israelis favor direct talks with Hamas, while even most Arab regimes/Israeli government refuses to do so. Heck, even Ben Net was just on CNN now saying that he doesn't agree with that sentiment.


Poll: Most Israelis Want Truce With Hamas

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/02/27/world/main3882055.shtml

 

I don't see how any sane human being could turn that offer down. I would take Shawarma over East Jerusalem any day of the week. That should be Hamas' rallying cry, "give me shawarma, or give me death!"

 

I wouldn't bet on that. Time -- and the shifting geopolitical reality -- isn't on Israel's side. Israel is in a growing state of 'paranoia', and for good reason.

It shouldn't surprise you that a growing number of Palestinians/Arabs are now rethinking the two-state solution altogether, arguing instead in favor of keeping the situation 'fluid'.

 

The Israelis believe in collective punishment and it has been a staple of their military doctrine for decades now. You would think that, by now, they would understand that a 'military solution' is a difficult thing to attain. I understand their frustrations with the rocket attacks, but while killing a Palestinian for every rocket fired might satisfy public opinion ("at least we're doing something," seems to be the thinking here), that strategy has repeatedly failed to stop rocket attacks on Israeli border towns. We saw how successful Israeli operations were in stopping/slowing the rocket attacks during the Lebanese campaign, despite the massive carnage their fighter planes inflicted on entire neighborhoods with Hezbollah presence (they literally flattened entire blocks of buildings, and it still didn't work; rocket attacks only intensified).

As for the "holocaust" reference, the Arab press -- I am sure -- is going to have a field day with that one. The Israelis themselves -- they will say -- have admitted to massacring Palestinians in the Gaza strip, and have warned of unleashing a "bigger holocaust" if the attacks continue. You have to be pretty dumb to use that reference in any military context, especially if you're Jewish.

Anyways, most Israelis fear going back to occupying Gaza, they have not so fond memories of past operations there...

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-oz15feb15,0,3203170.story

Don't march into Gaza

Only thorns and scorpions await Israel if it decides to invade that hostile territory.

By Amos Oz

February 15, 2008

Anger, frustration and invective are riling us. Israel must not fall into the trap that Hamas is setting for us -- we must not march into Gaza. Because the number of casualties in a ground invasion of Gaza would be much greater than the number of casualties caused by Kassam rockets over the last seven years. Because during five of the seven Kassam years, we controlled the entire Gaza Strip and hundreds of rockets were fired on Sderot anyway, in addition to repeated bloody assaults on the Israeli settlers who lived there. Apparently, we've forgotten.

Reoccupying the Gaza Strip would not necessarily end rocket fire on Sderot and its environs. In addition to the continuing attacks on Sderot, our occupying force would face gunfire and suicide bombers, day in and day out.

Moreover, an invasion of Gaza would unite the Palestinian masses and the Arab and Muslim worlds around Hamas, which at present is isolated and loathed by most Arabs. If Israeli forces invaded Gaza, Hamas' fighters would immediately be seen as defenders of a Palestinian Masada to the Palestinians, the Arab world and international public opinion -- the few against many, residential neighborhoods facing an army, refugee camps under the shadow of bomber squadrons, boys battling tanks, David versus Goliath.

If we conquer Gaza, we'll find ourselves sitting on thorns and scorpions. The occupying force will not have a day of peace. Neither will the inhabitants of Sderot and the area around it.

Even in such times of anger, when our hearts go out to the ongoing suffering of the Israelis of Sderot, we must not forget that the root of the Gaza problem is that hundreds of thousands of human beings are rotting there in refugee camps, camps that are incubators of poverty and despair, ignorance, religious and national fanaticism, hatred and violence.

From a historical point of view, there can be no solution to the problem of Gaza as long as there is not at least a modicum of hope for these desperate people somewhere on the horizon.

Then what can we do? We can and must achieve a cease-fire with Hamas in Gaza. A cease-fire would come, of course, with a high political price. But among all the prices Israel would have to pay for a mistaken and rash decision, it is the least deadly and the most bearable.

 

Far from glow of Annapolis, Rice heads to Mideast

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080229...l_rice_dc_1;_ylt=ArfCdrGUmz2O_YEzRQ0LOygUewgF

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice travels to Israel and the Palestinian territories next week, with U.S. credibility at stake and peace talks stymied by escalating violence in Hamas-run Gaza.
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Three months ago, Israelis and Palestinians pledged at a peace conference in Annapolis, Maryland, that they would seek a deal by the end of the Bush administration in January 2009.

The window is fast narrowing and diplomats and experts note talk has become more vague, with suggestions of only a framework agreement by year-end, or a so-called "shelf agreement" that could be dusted off by the next president.

But a senior U.S. official said it was too soon to write off prospects of a deal and Rice's goal on this trip would be to keep talks moving between Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and pro-Western Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

She also will try to get both sides to take immediate steps to improve security on the ground, particularly in Gaza, which was seized by the Islamist group Hamas last June. Abbas's Fatah forces control the West Bank.

"It is very difficult to insulate the negotiations process from these other events. Concern has been growing about that," said the senior official, who spoke on condition he was not named because the issue is so sensitive.

"That means pushing both sides to get some steps that will give people a sense that there is a positive story here rather than what we are seeing right now which is quite negative."

Rice is expected to lean on Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak to concede to Abbas's demand to ease checkpoints in the West Bank and give Abbas's forces more responsibility. But officials said she would make clear U.S. support for Israel's right to defend itself.

ANSWERS IN EGYPT

Rice's first stop is due to be Cairo on Tuesday where she wants answers over how Egypt will secure its border with Gaza after hundreds of thousands of Palestinians breached it last month to buy goods unavailable due to an Israeli blockade.

Hamas has increased its rocket attacks into Israel from Gaza, leading to more attacks from Israel and mounting fears that a full-scale conflict could be near.

Egypt has been seeking a cessation of hostilities from Hamas and assurances from Israel it would stop its attacks if the Islamists ceased theirs, an Arab diplomat said.

"The Israeli position is that a cease-fire would work only if it dealt with ending the rocket fire and no further development of the military infrastructure of Hamas," the diplomat said.

"Hamas wants a cease-fire which includes ending targeting killings (by Israel) of their politicians," he said, adding discussions were complicated by talk of a prisoner exchange.

Former Israeli negotiator Daniel Levy said it was important for Rice to send a strong message to the Egyptians, either publicly or privately, that the United States supported a cease-fire between Hamas and Israel.

"The surest way to collapse Annapolis is you allow this escalation in Gaza to continue," said Levy, now with the New America Foundation.

The senior U.S. official said Hamas wanted a "steady drumbeat" of violence. "They (Hamas) may sense that something is going on the negotiations front and this is their version of showing up for business," he said.

But diplomats and experts say the peace talks -- which are meant to deal with the toughest issues of Jerusalem, borders and refugees -- have been moving at a slow pace.

Several documents are being discussed and there is pressure to have something to present when President George W. Bush visits Israel in May to mark Israel's 60th anniversary.

"If I were a betting man, I would say that it is possible that by the fall for these two guys to have produced a few pieces of paper which may not be implementable but nonetheless possible," said Aaron Miller, a former U.S. Middle East negotiator who has a book on the subject coming out in April.

But the Arab diplomat was less optimistic and said Palestinians must get some dividends for there to be any faith in the process. "There has not been a lot achieved," he said.