All groups in Gaza, including Hamas, would now accept a cease-fire deal with Israel which would include releasing Gilad Shalit, according to the Palestinian Agriculture Minister, who also heads the coordinating committee of Palestinian organizations there.
Ibrahim Al-Naja said the factions were ready to stop the Qassam rocket fire if Israel’s ceased all military moves against the Palestinian factions in Gaza. They are also ready to release Shalit in exchange for guaranteeing the future release of Palestinian prisoners.
haaretz
If this is true then Hamas has capitulated….for the moment. The key part is the willingness to end the rockets. The return of Shalit is important; but the end of the rockeets would be the first step to an actual peace.
Written by jay on July 25th, 2006 with 3 comments.
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There seems to be some thought that the Euro (well, French) handwringing over Israel’s actions in Lebanon somehow matters. It doesn’t for a number of reasons.
First, Germany for rather obvous reasons, will not abandon Israel and will block any concerted effort on the part of the EU to censure the Israelis.
Second, while the Clare Short left of the Labour Party has never met a terrorist it didn’t like, Blair long since ceased paying much attention to this bunch of loonies. It has cost him politically but Tony is not likely to run for the Premiership again and at this point can basically tell the loony left to stuff it. When Blair leaves there may be a whole different set of issues…but there may also be a Conservative government.
Third, regardless of the position taken by Europe, its capacity to act in the circumstances is limited by the euro-wide decline in military readiness and the euro wide truning away from main force. While there remain elite military units in many European nations those units would be hard pressed to enter the current engagement without there already being a ceasefire in place.
Fourth, it is gradually dawning on euro political elites that the decades of Palestinian support which has formed the basis of the center-left diplomacy in Europe with respect to the Middle East has failed. Gaza, freed of the hated Israelis, has turned into a violent slum good for nothing save electing terrorsits to government and launching crude missiles. The Iranians are simply laughing at the euro lead no-nukes for Iran efforts and the Muslims in Europe remain angry and marginalized.
Finally, while the euro publics lament the “disproportion” of the force used by Israel it is gradually dawning on even the most dense Kumbaya singers that Hezbollah and Hamas are not in the peace business. They are in the terror business and that terror is being directed towards people very much like the Kumbaya singers themselves. For the children of ‘68 this is an unpleasant collision of ideals with reality. For some clinging to the old faith of anti-Americanism and multi-cultural/culturally relativistic detestation of Israel is comforting.
However, after the slaughter of Pym Fortune and Theo van Gogh, the London underground bombings, the Danish catoon fiasco and the car burnings across France, there are plenty of Europeans who are realizing that the war on terror Israel is fighting is identical to the war on terror which they face at home. It is a sobering thought and one which has kept the numbers at the lefty demos in the low thousands.
In the current conflict Europe is, at best, on the sidelines; but at least the majority of the Europeans are not actively cheering the wrong team.
Written by jay on July 25th, 2006 with no comments.
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