High Road
Taken by the Israelis, yet again. Hamas obligingly invites its own destruction. NYT:
After 22 days of war against Hamas, and the deaths of more than 1,200 Palestinians and 13 Israelis, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert insisted that “we have reached all the goals of the war, and beyond.” Speaking to the nation late Saturday night, he said that Hamas had “suffered a major blow” and that if it continued to fire rockets into Israel, “the Israeli Army will regard itself as free to respond with force.”
Hamas, battered but hardly broken, said in Gaza that it would continue fighting so long as Israeli troops occupy Gaza. And Israeli officials say a new flurry of rocket launches, to prove that Hamas is neither cowed nor defeated, is likely for at least a short time.
Heavy Israeli bombardment continued throughout the day Saturday, and in an attack that brought scathing criticism from the United Nations, Israeli tank fire killed two young brothers taking shelter at a United Nations school in the northern Gaza town of Beit Lahiya.
Still waiting on the scathing criticism of the United Nations for harboring terrorists. (NYT’s Erlanger here takes a serious and evenhanded look at whether war crimes have been committed, closing with this telling Israeli quote: “How does an army fight a terrorist group? … If we just see the pictures and don’t use our heads, then the terrorists will always win these public opinion battles.”) Back to the news:
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice hailed Israel’s cease-fire announcement and said in a statement that the United States “expects that all parties will cease attacks and hostile actions immediately.”
That appeared unlikely as the truce’s 2 a.m. start neared early Sunday. News reports as of 6 a.m. seemed to indicate that things were relatively calm.
In Gaza City, a Hamas spokesman in hiding, Fawzi Barhoum, said in a statement that “we will not accept the presence of a single soldier in Gaza,” according to Agence-France Presse. “The Zionist enemy must stop all its aggression, completely withdraw from the Gaza Strip, lift the blockade and open the crossings.”
Translation from the Arabic: “The Zionist entity must immediately allow us to claim a victory, and stop killing us so we can start killing them again.” Sounds reasonable. Hang on, this is a fascinating graph:
The length of Israel’s occupation of Gaza has now been put in the hands of Hamas. The Israeli government says it will not sign any deal with the group, which is committed to Israel’s destruction and whose rule over Gaza the Israelis do not want to recognize. But Hamas is seen as likely to reassert political control over Gaza.
The blame for violence in Gaza would appear to be placed exactly where it belongs. In Hamas’ hands. Dawn over NYT. Meanwhile …
Mr. Mubarak’s foreign minister, Ahmed Aboul Gheit, said that his country would not be bound by the memorandum of understanding agreed to by the United States and Israel and would not accept foreign troops on its soil. But officials of both Israel and the United States say Egypt has been showing a new seriousness about stopping the smuggling.
The Arab and Muslim world again appeared to be split into two camps. Egypt and Saudi Arabia have been openly critical of Hamas, pressing it to agree to a cease-fire. Qatar, meanwhile, which has close ties to both the United States and Iran, held a meeting with Syria, Iran, Mauritania and Hamas’s exiled political leader, Khaled Meshal, as the Palestinian representative. Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority who is supported by the United States and Egypt, had refused to go to Qatar.
NYT takes a closer look at the Arab split here.
Meanwhile, Noah Pollak casts a jaundiced eye on the ceasefire at Commentary. If the IDF remains in Gaza, ready to resume operations if provoked, ceasefires like war have their own momentum. But he ntes hopefully it may just be a cynical Israeli ploy to gain the high ground. Good luck!
Apropos of which, Gateway: German court approves Hamas flags at demonstrations. Tearing down of Israeli flags by buckethead cops OK. Gateway also cocks an eye at possible fauxtography.
Driscoll, it’s beginning to look a lot like 1942. Interesting historic exercise. 1942 or 1938?
Israel Matzav with a new Israeli flag suggestion and a jaundiced view of a Hamas ceasefire claim.
The “Don’t Tread On Me” theme is great. I’d suggest a native desert asp rather than an American rattler … unless they want to make a point about where the backup venom and spare fang parts come from … and add that the great thing about the current Israeli flag is that great big in-your-face Star of David. I’m not sure serpents are kosher, but that’s for them to sort out.
Running updates at Random Thoughts.
Soccer Dad with the line of the day: Did Monty Python Negotiate Israel’s Ceasefire?
When I used to watch the Monty Python skits on TV, I remember there were times when the group came across a problem: the skit was funny enough, but they just couldn’t find a way to end it.
S-Dad explores his “What Would Monty Python Do?” theme.
Topics: Israel, Palestinians
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 8:48 am Comments (6) on Sunday, January 18, 2009
6 Responses to “High Road”
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January 18th, 2009 at 10:21 am
[...] at Jules Crittenden’s spot, we find out that Israel has agreed to a truce, and Hamas has agreed to their own [...]
January 18th, 2009 at 10:40 am
Hamas “battered but hardly broken” , eh? As Tony Snow would have said, thanks for the Hamas perspective, NYT.
January 18th, 2009 at 11:35 am
How about a great big in-your-face Star of David with a serpent in the middle of it, poised to strike?
Cease fire, my @$$. Hamas will never honor it, and surely the Israelis know that.
January 18th, 2009 at 5:52 pm
I’ve recently taken to tormenting the Israel Haters & Hamas Huggers over at Glenn Greenwald’s blog at Salon. I have to hand it to the lefty, Glenn, as he DOES let us Evil Neos post there without purge danger. So, it’s very unlike Kosroid or Huffy in that regard. The commenters are relentlessly left and nutter malignant. They are all in a snit over the dawning revelation that Booosh-Cheney and their nefarious team will NOT be tried as War Criminals(or, other kinds..)under The Messiah. As a matter of fact, there’s large pi**ing & moaning over Bammo goin’wit’d'flow.
I LOVE their pain.
January 18th, 2009 at 11:53 pm
I’ve repeatedly read that Hamas “will not accept the presence of a single soldier in Gaza.” Gilead Shalit has been a single Israeli soldier in Gaza for two years, so they should free him.
January 19th, 2009 at 12:39 pm
Serpants, reptiles, and rodents are not Kosher. Just for the record. It’s starting to feel a lot like 1938 again. Jews around the world, even in “safe” countries had better start arming themselves, just in case.