Political Crossfire Forums

superskippy · Joined: 14 Jul 2005 Posts: 8682 Location: Petah Tikva

A ceasefire has been signed with hostilities to end in a few hours in Gaza, this comes after lengthy talks between Abbas and Olmert over the phone last night. Also agreed upon is to continue dialogue for a final resolution and to resume talks again soon. Hamas has also given 6 months to perhaps as they have vaguely alluded to, go to negotiations. Hamas issued this statement Quote: "We give six months to open real political horizons ... we agreed on the national accord to establish a Palestinian state, with the June 4, 1967 borders,"

Also statements have been released stating that a ceasefire could possibly be applied to the West Bank if the various militant factions in Gaza appear to hold to their word and further dialogue opens up.

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1162378480111&pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6184664.stm

This is of course early and we can only guess what will happen next but this has the potential to be the most momentous thing in a long time.

superskippy · Joined: 14 Jul 2005 Posts: 8682 Location: Petah Tikva

It also appears that we will begin withdrawing troops from the Gaza Strip in accordance with the ceasefire.

mendosan · Joined: 02 May 2006 Posts: 2735

superskippy wrote: A ceasefire has been signed with hostilities to end in a few hours in Gaza, this comes after lengthy talks between Abbas and Olmert over the phone last night. Also agreed upon is to continue dialogue for a final resolution and to resume talks again soon. Hamas has also given 6 months to perhaps as they have vaguely alluded to, go to negotiations. Hamas issued this statement Quote: "We give six months to open real political horizons ... we agreed on the national accord to establish a Palestinian state, with the June 4, 1967 borders,"

Also statements have been released stating that a ceasefire could possibly be applied to the West Bank if the various militant factions in Gaza appear to hold to their word and further dialogue opens up.

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1162378480111&pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6184664.stm

This is of course early and we can only guess what will happen next but this has the potential to be the most momentous thing in a long time.

This looks like a good step, did Israel reject the first offer because there was a time limit on it, or because there was no offer to go to the peace table.

superskippy · Joined: 14 Jul 2005 Posts: 8682 Location: Petah Tikva

In the first offer it wasnt organized, it was an offer by Hamas to simply suspend rocket attacks in exchange for our suspending operations. That isnt what we want, this is far, far broader and leaves the groundwork to head to negotiations and talks. The vague statements by Hamas are also some of the first in the history of the organization that allude to the possability of peacetalks. This ceasefire came after an enormous amount of talk between Olmert and Abbas and they have issued statements to the effect that dialogue and negotiation should be some of the next steps considered.

ToonArmyIsComing · Joined: 15 Feb 2005 Posts: 5888 Location: Ontario

As with other things in the Middle East, I think this is just a temporary development. In the end, violence, oppression, and hatred will prevail.

superskippy · Joined: 14 Jul 2005 Posts: 8682 Location: Petah Tikva

You may be right, but we can only wait and see.

mr_happy · Joined: 29 Mar 2006 Posts: 319

if Hamas releases Shalit this could become permanent.

Saracen · Joined: 01 Dec 2005 Posts: 16443 Location: On Earth

If Hamas releases Shalit, Israel withdraws, a Palestinian state with part of East Jerusalem (as discussed with superskippy) is brought into existence, and all Palestinian prisoners are released, and all militant groups are disarmed... then yes, God willing it becomes permanent.

cap'n queasy · Joined: 15 May 2004 Posts: 34968

That would be nice.

I hope it works out for everyone concerned.

blockhead · Joined: 29 Oct 2006 Posts: 597 Location: SouthWest

That wasn't so hard, now was it.

Let's hope the Israelis don't break the ceasefire agreement.

The Comrade · Joined: 16 Jul 2006 Posts: 12039 Location: Zagreb

blockhead wrote: That wasn't so hard, now was it.

Let's hope the Israelis don't break the ceasefire agreement.

or the palestinians?

funny how you assume israel will break it when the palestinians are equally at fault for the current situation.

agentkgb · Joined: 23 Aug 2006 Posts: 2241 Location: US

Some good news for once. :) I hope it becomes permanent though that seems like too much to hope for.

superskippy · Joined: 14 Jul 2005 Posts: 8682 Location: Petah Tikva

We'll see, honestly though I'm surprised there are so few people commenting in here this is perhaps the biggest news in terms of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in months perhaps much more.

blockhead · Joined: 29 Oct 2006 Posts: 597 Location: SouthWest

superskippy wrote: We'll see, honestly though I'm surprised there are so few people commenting in here this is perhaps the biggest news in terms of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in months perhaps much more.

Wow, it didn't seem like that big of news when it was reported that the Israelis rejected the original offer. You were quite indignant about it. Now that they accept it. It's big news? What are you saying that it's big news when Israel accepts peace, instead of continued violence? I guess you might be right.

This is what you said on the other thread.

http://www.politicalcrossfire.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=70897

Quote: but as I said before Hamas has made clear that they are only willing to give a 10 year ceasefire. When they really want to come to the peace tables then we can talk.

Quote: Hamas is dedicated at this present day to full unification of Palestine as they call it. We have waited 60 years, and if we have to keep this going longer to get to the table again we will. Hamas can either offer to come to the negotiating table or it can not. We have seen their offers of ceisefire and even accepted them before, believing that we could go to the table from there. We were wrong then, and we arent going to accept it now.

ETC...

superskippy · Joined: 14 Jul 2005 Posts: 8682 Location: Petah Tikva

The original offer was an offer by Hamas for a tit for tat halting of combat. This is a unified ceasefire of all militant factions including Hamas, the PRC, Islamic Jihad etc, Hamas has also made statements to the effect that they may indeed enter into negotiations, Abbas and Olmert talked directly to lay this out and have perhaps laid the foundations for further talks and negotiations. As well as the chance that if everything goes well an agreement was made to look into extending a ceasefire to the West Bank. This is far, far more than the attempted limited ceasefire offered by Hamas.

blockhead · Joined: 29 Oct 2006 Posts: 597 Location: SouthWest

superskippy wrote: The original offer was an offer by Hamas for a tit for tat halting of combat. This is a unified ceasefire of all militant factions including Hamas, the PRC, Islamic Jihad etc, Hamas has also made statements to the effect that they may indeed enter into negotiations, Abbas and Olmert talked directly to lay this out and have perhaps laid the foundations for further talks and negotiations. As well as the chance that if everything goes well an agreement was made to look into extending a ceasefire to the West Bank. This is far, far more than the attempted limited ceasefire offered by Hamas.

Please don't backpedal now.

superskippy · Joined: 14 Jul 2005 Posts: 8682 Location: Petah Tikva

I'm not. I said so from the beginning we wanted a real negotiation towards peace, now we have it.

blockhead · Joined: 29 Oct 2006 Posts: 597 Location: SouthWest

superskippy wrote: I'm not. I said so from the beginning we wanted a real negotiation towards peace, now we have it.

Please...

The other ceasefire was for 10 years, from your link. The negotiation you got was a phone call from Abbas.

"We give six months to open real political horizons... we agreed on the national accord to establish a Palestinian state, with the June 4, 1967 borders," he said.

He warned that if an agreement is not reached within that time, "Hamas will become stronger and the resistance will resume ... and will go on with a third intifada."

Mashaal's comments suggested that Hamas would be willing to call a six-month cease-fire for any talks and would accept a two-state solution, though he stopped short of using that phrase or recognizing Israel.

StrikeEmd15 · Joined: 10 Jul 2006 Posts: 106 Location: Mind Your Buisness

ToonArmyIsComing wrote: As with other things in the Middle East, I think this is just a temporary development. In the end, violence, oppression, and hatred will prevail.

Probably. But, hey. We can hope, right?

StrikeEmd15 · Joined: 10 Jul 2006 Posts: 106 Location: Mind Your Buisness

blockhead wrote: That wasn't so hard, now was it.

Let's hope the Israelis don't break the ceasefire agreement.

That's not really fair. All considering, there's an equally good chance either Israel's government/IDF or Hamas/Fatah may break the ceasefire. Not to mention there's the possibility that factions unknown may frame one of the two sides, in order to renew the conflict. However, if this goes according to plan, then we may finally see the end of a fifty-year conumdrum (did I spell that right?).