Last night, Israel and the Palestinian Authority both committed themselves to a ceasefire between Gaza and Israel, that would also include the complete withdrawal of the IOF troops from Gaza. It has gotten off to a rocky start. According to this account by AP’s Amy Teibel and Ibrahim Barzak:
- Ahead of the new agreement, which took effect 6 a.m. Sunday, Israel pulled all its forces out of Gaza, the army said. Dozens of tanks and armored vehicles were parked just over the border in a military staging ground in southern Israel early Sunday.
But Palestinian militants continued firing rockets into Israel throughout the morning. Israeli police reported at least four rockets fired at the Israeli town of Sderot and an Associated Press photographer in the border town heard at least two more strikes. Another AP photographer in the northern Gaza town of Beit Hanoun heard several rockets fired throughout the morning.
There are serious issues of control on the Palestinian side, where any attempt to exercise real control over frontline forces has always been extremely difficult because of Israel’s continual and often lethal interdiction operations.
The AP reporters wrote:
- Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas said he had contacted the leaders of all the Palestinian factions Sunday and they reassured him they were committed to the truce.
“There is a 100 percent effort to make this work, but there is no guarantee of 100 percent results,” said Ghazi Hamad, a spokesman for the Hamas-led government.
Hamas’ own militants claimed responsibility for firing rockets into Israel after 6 a.m., clouding prospects for the truce’s longevity.
“(We) reiterate that our attacks against the enemy continue,” the group said in a statement posted on its Web site.
The Hamas militants said they continued their attacks because some Israeli troops remained inside Gaza, an accusation Israel denied.
Islamic Jihad also claimed responsibility for firing rockets into Israel after the truce, and a spokesman, Abu Hamza, denied his group had signed on to truce. However, top Islamic Jihad leaders had said they were part of the deal, and the new rocket fire suggested they were not in complete control of their fighters…
Luckily, PM Olmert thus far seems to be showing a slightly flexible attitude that might allow the Palestinians a little time to bring their front-line militants under control. His spokesperson Miri Eisin is quoted there as saying about the rockets that were fired after 6 a.m.:
- “Let’s hope that’s just the problems of the beginning… But if Israel is attacked, we will respond. If there are Palestinian factions that are not part of the cease-fire, it’s hard to see how the cease-fire will hold.”
Meanwhile, Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal is in Cairo and there is the distinct possibility of further agreements that might cover a ceasefire in the West Bank and some large-scale prisoner exchanges…
Let’s all just hope that the existing ceasefire takes hold, the de-escalation process continues, and real negotiations for the ending of Israel’s occupation of Palestine and Golan can be held very, very soon.
I wonder: if this invasion was partly motivated by a need for Olmert to redeem himself after the disasterous Lebanon campaign then what has been the result? Is Olmert now in a stronger position?
RE: control issues on the Pal side. Yes, their a ragged, disparate disorganized ill disciplined bunch. Their failures and inabilty to sustain a government of the ghetto is turned against them. Sadly, what passes forgovernment on the Pal side has been as abused as the land and the people. Cut up, bisected, manipulated, surrounded, assassinated, deligitimized, subjected to economic warfare, refusal to accept local democratic decissions. Blockading and starving those not agreeable or supine enough until conditions are such that the population, and the factions rebel and expolde in frustration. How can it be surprising, or grounds for further abuse and calumny that such a civil society barely has a grasp on survival, let alone, coherent effective government or rule of law, and control over all use of political violence.
Bravo today for Olmert saying Israel will show some “patience”. It is reported that even Israel does not have control over its armed forces. What Olmert needs to apply to the Territories is legality and humanity.
I find it to be a heartening sign that the PA has deployed 13,000 troops along the border to enforce the ceasefire.
What a mistake if this cease-fire takes hold. The Palestinians will merely re-arm and reorganize in preparation for the next round of fighting (ala Hezbollahs example – in fact, I think that Hamas took a look at what Hezbollah was able to do since 200, and decided to try to do the same). Israeli civilians will be the ones to suffer when Palestinian rockets hit major cities. And Europe won’t allow the kind of firepower used against Lebanon to be used against the territories.
Bravo today for Olmert saying Israel will show some “patience”. It is reported that even Israel does not have control over its armed forces. What Olmert needs to apply to the Territories is legality and humanity.
I fear his “patience” will vaporize rapidly after the diplomatic intermezzo surrounding the vist by the to war-addicts, Bush and Rice, to Jordan. If Olmert shows “patience”, one can be sure it’s “diplomatic” patience, a simple tool in the standard diplomatic toolbox, like “diplomatic illness”. “Diplomatic illness” is used when a politician doesn’t want to appear somewhere for political reasons. “Diplomatic patience” is the tool to use when one has to postpone ones wish to crush ones opponents once and for all (in Olmerts case these opponents are the Palestinians locked up in this horrible open-air prison, called Gaza).
But let’s wait and see.
http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2006-11-27T162838Z_01_L23458912_RTRUKOC_0_US-MIDEAST.xml&pageNumber=0&imageid=&cap=&sz=13&WTModLoc=NewsArt-C1-ArticlePage2
All this why then Lebanon war? Who pay for the reconstructions and the damage caused by this ruthless adventure in Lebanon and the human loose?
Look to his offer of “ to dismantle many settlements Israel has built in the West Bank, which it captured in the 1967 war, why many not all the settlements? It’s built on Palestinians land? Is it illegal and against the international law?
Just weeks ago Franc and Spain was offering a peace in Israel response was very fast and rejected. Same for EU offer of international summit for peace in ME Israel not accepted.
Also there is on the table Saudi King Abdullah Offer for complete peace plan approved by the Arab League and all Arabs Israel not accepted.
What not mentioned in the news Olmert conditioned his offer that the right to return of Palestinians should be forgot it , but any Jews around the world he have the right of return to Palestinians and get home on occupied land!! Some of those Jews (11% of them) in the past went and living in Israel are not Jews.