Israel Rejects Gaza Ceasefire
Israel today dismissed a proposal by Hamas for a six-month truce inside the Gaza Strip, saying the Palestinian group would use the period to prepare for more fighting rather than peace.
The Hamas offer, issued yesterday after talks with Egyptian mediators, departed from previous demands by the group that any ceasefire apply simultaneously in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.
Israel is reluctant to enter into any formal agreement that could strengthen Hamas against its West Bank-based rival, Fatah. The Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, Fatah’s leader, is currently pursuing US-sponsored peace talks with Israel.
But the Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert, signalled his flexibility last month by saying military attacks on Gaza would cease if Hamas stopped cross-border rocket attacks.
“Israel is interested in peace. Unfortunately, Hamas is playing games. Hamas is biding time in order to re-arm and regroup,” David Baker, an Israeli spokesman, said today.
“There would be no need for Israel’s defensive actions if Hamas would cease and desist from committing terrorist attacks on Israelis,” Baker said, in reference to Israeli air strikes and commando raids in Gaza. “Israel will continue to act to protect its citizens.”
Early this morning, a Palestinian militant shot and killed two Israeli security guards at a factory on the border between Israel and the West Bank. Riad al-Malki, the Palestinian foreign minister, condemned the attack, saying it was meant “to undermine the efforts by the Palestinian government to undertake full security responsibilities in the West Bank”.
The attack would also embarrass Abbas while he was in Washington meeting US officials, al-Malki said.
Any Israeli-Palestinian peace deal will have to include an Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank to make room for a Palestinian state. Israel says leaders in both Gaza and the West Bank must rein in violent extremists first.
Israel argued that attacks like the one today prove Palestinian authorities are not yet capable of controlling militants in their territories.
The Israeli military said the gunman approached the two guards while they were screening workers entering the small industrial zone of Nitzanei Shalom, opened fire and then escaped.
The industrial zone is located on the line between Israel and the West Bank. It contains five Israeli factories that employ Palestinians.
Palestinian security officials in the nearby town of Tulkarem said soldiers moved into the West Bank in force after the attack and set up a checkpoint.
© 2008 The Guardian
“I won’t stop robbing, beating, and killing you until you stop resisting.”
Israel may be the most primitive nation in the Middle East, and that’s saying something.
Maybe we need to add, “because the US says we can’t talk to Hamas.”
How else can the IDF justify itself unless it keeps creating new “terrorists” to replace the children they are killing?
= = = P . a . s . k . u . d . n . y . a . k . s = = =
“Israel today dismissed a proposal by Hamas for a six-month truce inside the Gaza Strip, saying the Palestinian group would use the period to prepare for more fighting rather than peace”
I’m sure Israel would use the time to disband their army, decommission their illegal nuclear arsenal, and hold a pig roast.
remeinds me of a cop tazering someone, yelling at them to stop twitching or they will be tazered again.
“US soldier spied for Israel, court told”,
NYT and LAT are the sources, Apr 24 2008
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/us-soldier-spied-for-israel-court-told/2008/04/23/1208743040001.html
“Humanitarian situation in the occupied Palestinian territory:
Report to UN Security Council
by John Holmes
Global Research, April 25, 2008
United Nations - 2008-04-22
Briefing to the Security Council on the situation in the Middle East including the Palestinian question
Statement by John Holmes, Under-Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator
22 April 2008″
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=8802
“Breaking the Silence - Israeli Soldiers Speak
by Stephen Lendman
Global Research, April 24, 2008″
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=8777
You should appreciate these above articles, but I believe especially the latter one by Stephen Lendman. I knew some former Israeli soldiers are actively opposed to the occupation on or of Palestine, and the many crimes committed against Palestinians, but hadn’t yet learned of the number of these and related Israeli groups. Lendman briefly describes several of these groups.
The most dangerous country in the Middle East: Israel!
It’s time that the western nations stop giving Israel a free pass. What happened during the holocaust was tragic, but the Nazis paid for their war crimes. What is happening now to the Palestinians is also tragic, but the Israelis are not paying for their war crimes. It’s time they stopped hiding behind the holocaust to commit their war crimes, and it’s time we stopped sending US taxes to Israel to fund their war crimes. The Occupation should become a national discussion, since we are funding it. That is the center of the Middle East storm, and nothing can be resolved until the Occupation and illegal settlements end.
pax4all - you said it all.