Every moment of the latest Indiana Jones film or the lasting-ness Israeli-Hamas peace treaty, brokered by Egypt?
The really telling quote comes from Hamas official Ahmed Yousef:
I am confident that everybody will abide by what we’ve agreed. All the groups which went to Cairo gave their okay to the ceasefire. If anybody does anything, they will be doing it on their own.
His confidence probably fails to inspire much confidence, as does the traceability of ‘anything’ to solo vs. affiliated activity.
Nonetheless, Muffti hopes for the best. The ceasefire takes place 6 a.m. Thursday, presumably so each side could get a few more shots in before it takes effect. The cynical amongst you may want to put together a pool, picking days that treaty will last without violation.
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This strikes me as a mistake. Hamas had no reason to attack Israel in the first place. When Israel finally started responding, all of a sudden this became a “cycle” according to everybody instead of addressing it as Palestinian aggression that should not be rewarded.
Israel has Hamas on the defensive and it should keep pressing. Otherwise, the precedent has been set that if you just keep firing enough rockets, you will eventually get Israel to bend. The only reason to accept a cease-fire is to have Hamas turn itself to ruling its people instead of arming itself for war. This seems highly unlikely and in the future, a well-armed, well-trained Hamas will make today’s problems appear to be small in comparison.
Muffti sez:
The cynical amongst you may want to put together a pool, picking days that treaty will last without violation.
Ephraim sez:
Days?
Muffti – and Middle – what is the solution?
Are you saying Israel should not pursue peace?
If there is evidence that our, uhhhh, partners in peace are arming for war – should be strike pre-emptively as we did in 1967?
Are those the only two options? What about the one where we send in the clown brigade?
Seriously, though, can you say a bit more about each option? In general Muffti is a fan of pursuing peace but he can see the wisdom of pre-emptive strike — on condition that the chances of success are high and things don’t turn out embarassingly like the now infamous lebanon 2 war.
muffti:
In general Muffti is a fan of pursuing peace but he can see the wisdom of pre-emptive strike — on condition that the chances of success are high and things don’t turn out embarassingly like the now infamous lebanon 2 war.
– – – – – – – – – –
… well, what does success mean?
Southern Israel left in peace for… how long?
Are we willing to undertake necessary action unconstrained by the increasingly tight noose of PC opinion? Are you, muffti, willing to answer “damn right” to criticism of a decisive Israeli response?
Or do we just want something that temporarily lets the steam off – so that, with Israeli suffering less obvious, we can go back to “even handed” handwringing?
What does success look like – now that anyone with open eyes can see that a generation of internationally-bankrolled peacemaking has not only not cajoled forth any sincere Arab will to coexist, but has actually been interpreted as weakness and allowed extremism to flourish and take control, obliterating any real hope that a will to coexist will develop in the next generation?
You’re quite right to point to Lebanon2 – we’ve had coitus interruptus twice on our northern border, and the result is that our enemies there are more solidly entrenched and emboldened.
So: what does success look like?
Muffti and Middle – have we reached the point yet where you are willing to answer “damn straight and we’ll do it again if necessary” when faced with the inevitable PC criticisms you will hear – evoked by ANY action Israel now takes?