Hamas agrees to 12-hour halt in hostilities

[El Supremo]

Source: Aljazeera America

Hamas announced Friday that it would begin a 12-hour pause in fighting with Israeli forces Saturday.

Separately, Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported Friday that Israel had also agreed to the 12-hour pause, which would start at 7 a.m. local time (0500 GMT). Israel had earlier rejected a longer cease-fire proposed by Washington.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agreed to the 12-hour humanitarian pause, the newspaper reported, citing an unnamed senior Israeli official. The Haaretz report could not immediately be confirmed.

The Hamas announcement and reports of Israel's agreement to the pause came hours after Israel rejected a proposal by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry for all parties to observe a week-long halt to the deadly conflict, which threatens to spill over into the occupied West Bank.

Read more: http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2014/7/25/gaza-death-toll-kerry.html

---

Please let it last!

[Loudly]

1. Talk is cheap, Hamas.

Do you actually have that kind of command and control over your rocket brigadiers?

[delrem]

3. So, you're so belligerent, in want of more death and dying,

that you can't stop yourself from snaking in more war propaganda even at this point?

[Loudly]

5. If they agree to a cease fire and continue to launch, wouldn't that be a problem?

Wouldn't it indicate a lack of discipline and a need to resume operations to shut down individual actors?

[delrem]

6. You seem very very eager to "punish" Gaza to the maximum extreme.

What will satisfy you?

[Loudly]

8. Cessation of hostilities honored by everyone?

Recognition of Israel's right to exist in peace?

Abandonment of institutionalized hatred and vengeance?

Use of aid exclusively for economic development and humanitarian relief?

It's not a long list, but it's an ambitious one.

[delrem]

9. I see. Now you're putting Israel and Gaza on an equal footing.

It's about time. And it's a start. Hopefully more people will come around.

[Iamthetruth]

15. If hamas simply exist

For the single purpose to destroy Israel why would think they would want peace with Israel? The hamas chater is pretty clear, I don't see that type,of stuff in any Israel charter? Sorry, I don't view hamas as anything but what they are, terrorists who want every Jewish person dead.

[shaayecanaan]

17. from the likud charter:-

"the governmemt of israel flatly denies the existence of a palestinian state west of the jordan river"

so now you know

[Bodhi BloodWave]

23. is that located online somewhere

I've stated something similar myself in the past elsewhere but when asked to provide proof i was unable to locate it.

Would be nice if i was able to point them toward it even after all this time

[shaayecanaan]

30. here

http://electronicintifada.net/content/truth-israels-intentions/6262

[Bodhi BloodWave]

31. thank you n/t

[Comrade Grumpy]

19. How about end the blockade of Gaza?

Actual adoption of the much vaunted two-state solution.

Abandonment of institutionalized hatred and vengeance. That works on both sides.

Mutual disarmament. Why should just one side disarm? Or mutual armament. Take your pick.

[Loudly]

21. Alas, chicken and egg, Comrade.

The blockade would not be necessary if not for the importation of munitions and other war making contraband.

Behave peaceably for a time, and behold that others may come to believe your peaceable intentions.

[Bodhi BloodWave]

24. define 'behave peaceably' please n/t

[Loudly]

27. Imagining myself in the place of an Israeli...

peaceably would be the absence of any act of overt hostility.

In a perfect world, a declaration of assent that Israel is the homeland of the Jewish People and a covenant to live without aggression or conflict alongside of it and in its midst for ever and ever, time without end.

[JDPriestly]

14. Loudly is pointing to a major impediment to peace -- the apparent

inability of the Palestinians to stop the violence on their side.

The Israelis are no doubt doing more harm with their violence, but a cease fire or peace agreement is meaningless unless BOTH sides can enforce the peace. Israeli civilians know that if they violate a cease fire or peace agreement they risk arrest. It is so far unclear that the same can be said of the Palestinians. Both sides need peace if they are to negotiate about borders and other issues. So it isn't a question of who is at fault, it is a question of who on the Palestinian side has the capacity to negotiate for peace and enforce a negotiated peace.

It is a principle in negotiations that generally only parties to the negotiation are held to the results of the negotiation. There is a big question about who is responsible within the Palestinian people.

Who among the Palestinians can enforce a negotiated settlement? Who has the ultimate authority?

Israel is a democracy. Whether you like Netanyahu or not, there is no question that at this time, he represents the Israelis. He has the capacity to negotiate peace on behalf of the Israelis and the police and judicial power to enforce the peace against those among his people who prefer war.

So that is the problem with the Palestinians. It isn't a matter of who started the fight or how. The big problem is and has been for many years, who speaks for the Palestinians? Who is really in control in Palestine? Will the Palestinian people abide by and keep a negotiated peace? That's where the rub is.

It isn't a matter of taking one side or the other as to the details of the result of negotiations. It is a matter of knowing whether negotiation can lead to a settlement of differences and to peace.

[Comrade Grumpy]

20. The major impediment to peace is the Israeli siege of Gaza.

[Fred Sanders]

2. Talk is cheap, Israel, the Hamas militia not being a nation is getting out, and Bibi has gone mad.

Do Israelis have any control over the mad man and his ambitions?

[whistler162]

12. They have no control of the mad man who runs Hamas

ergo the reason for the current problems!

[ballyhoo]

16. I have a hunch he will atone for what he has done. But

I won't show you any more horrid pictures. We are in World War 3 right now.

[former9thward]

4. Hamas needs time to move rockets to new storage areas.

[delrem]

7. Fortunately for Israel,

all it needs is time to unload more weapons from the US, from containers arriving daily.

Cool, eh?

[EX500rider]

18. As they are a major weapons producer and exporter I doubt they need that much..

TEL AVIV, Israel, Sept. 18 (UPI) -- Israel has become one of the world's leading arms exporters with deals worth $12.9 billion from 2004-11, mostly with developing countries, the United States' Congressional Research Service says.

That put Israel, which has the most advanced defense industry in the Middle East, in eighth place among major arms suppliers, behind the United States, Russia, France, Britain, Germany, China and Italy.

The CRS report said actual Israeli arms transfers total $10.6 billion in 2004-11 but that's because deliveries are often made some time after contracts are signed.

Defense exports are reported to be the backbone of Israel's high-tech economy. There are some 150 companies in the defense sector with combined revenues estimated at more than $3.5 billion a year.



http://www.upi.com/Business_News/Security-Industry/2012/09/18/Israels-now-one-of-top-arms-exporters/UPI-35031347995154/

[whistler162]

22. YUp... Israel agrees to 4 hour extension

which might have led to a 24-hour cease fire. Guess who started firing rockets again.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/27/world/middleeast/israel-gaza.html?_r=0

Lesson to Hamas. When you poke a dog and it growls and snaps at you stop poking the dog. It will bite you if you continue.

[politicman]

25. i suppose Hamas needs to lay tdown their weapons but Israel is allowed to continue to searh...

WOW, are you serious, a whole 4 hours for Palestinians to relax before they start getting slaughtered again?

WOW, are you serious, a possible 24 hours of ceasefire where Israel is allowed to continue its operations on the ground and search for tunnels unimpeded, because if anyone stands in their way then it is deemed they violated the ceasefire?


WOW, Israel not being permitted to conduct its operations unimpeded and search for tunnels during a ceasefire?

I had Israel all wrong, I thought they were just a crazy mad nation, now I see that they have some smarts as well, great idea to put out there that you agree to a ceasefire that only restricts the Palestinians from defending themselves while you are still able to search for tunnels unimpeded, and when the Palestinians don't agree to it, blame the Palestinians.

Of course this only works if the media is compliant, ie, they state that Palestinians reject ceasefire whilst ignoring to mention that the ceasefire does nothing to stop the Israelis from searching for tunnels. And of course, dumb uneducated Americans lap it up wholesale without being able to know the real truth of why the ceasefire was rejected.

[stranger81]

32. Israel is just taking the same position it always has here --

Peace for me, but not for thee.

[Baclava]

11. Propaganda is a part of war... n/t

[JDPriestly]

13. I'm praying for peace.

Blessed are the peacemakers for they will be called the children of God.

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%205

[JimDandy]

26. Peace is not up to a god

It's within the human power to create peace.

[JDPriestly]

28. But not up to me.

[JimDandy]

29. Or me either, darn it!