Posted on 01/17/2009 12:56:04 PM PST by Enchante
BEIRUT, Jan 17 (Reuters) - U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said on Saturday that if Israel declared a unilateral ceasefire in the Gaza Strip it should include a timetable for the withdrawal of Israeli troops from the Hamas-ruled enclave.
Israel is planning to announce on Saturday a halt to its three-week Gaza offensive without any deal with Hamas, an Israeli official said.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
Screw the UN and to hell with you Secy. Ban!!
There should be no question of any Israeli "withdrawal" without the complete and permanent dismantlement and destruction of all Hamas facilities, weapons, tunnels, infrastructure etc. and the strongest possible barriers to the resurgence of Hamas. Since this won't happen, Israel should just do whatever is needed to maintain overall security and control in Gaza without having to actually occupy the major towns and cities. Retain control of security corridors that section off parts of Gaza to prevent the re-armament of Hamas, period.
Israel votes on cease-fire, Hamas vows to fight on
By MATTI FRIEDMAN and IBRAHIM BARZAK
JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel’s top leadership met Saturday to approve a unilateral cease-fire that would halt the devastating 22-day offensive in Gaza but Hamas vowed to keep fighting until all Israeli forces pull out.
In the hours leading up to the meeting and after it started, Israel kept bombarding Gaza.
[EXCERPTED - please do not post any more of article since it is from AP]
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5ioi_0jtO9RjMwPNRoXNCndRPRq3gD95P3G2O0
Good for Israel. This should allow them to continue to control the border with Egypt, and stop the weapons flow. Kind of disappointed that this probably means Israel is not attacking Iran.
Screw the UN and to hell with you Secy. Ban!!
love it
Why? Israel accomplished nothing. Hamas still exists and will be lobbing bombs over continuously.
NO cease-fire until Hamas is 100% annihilated! If Hamas is allowed to survive, then rocket attacks will continue in the near future.
Please, Lord, let Netanyahu be elected next month! Israel needs leadership with some guts!
Yeah, I was kinda hoping it was finally time to see Iran dealt with properly......
UN Secy. Ban is just such a POS, like all UN officials — he is not even pretending to be any kind of impartial mediator, he is carrying water for Hamas, pressing for Israeli full pullout without Hamas agreeing to anything at all (not that an agreement with Hamas would be worth a bucket of horse manure, but still, the UN could at least pretend not to side with one of the world’s worst terrorist entities).
Israel is being run by fools. This will lead to their destruction if they don’t wake up.
well it passed
23:03 Olmert: Cease-fire will go into effect at 2am (Haaretz)
Obviously the biggest danger is that Olmert and Livni are simply going wobbly in the knees.....
Can’t wait for Netanyahu to be PM (I hope).
However, I can see a couple of possible good reasons for such a unilateral 10-day ceasefire:
1) if/when Hamas continues firing rockets, as can be expected, then it will show all but the rabid leftists and Islamists that it is Hamas that is the obstacle to “peace”....
2) by not relying upon a negotiated agreement brokered by Egypt and/or the UN at this time, Israel retains complete freedom of action and does not make the slightest concession (yet) on troop withdrawls, border security of Gaza, keeping border crossings closed, retaining prerogative to resume military operations if/when Hamas continues firing rockets etc.
If Israel signed on to a bi-lateral ceasefire then there would be more leverage for the Mediascum and UN-fools to claim Israel was going back on the agreement etc. This way, it is Israel that deigns to start a cease-fire unilaterally, but without losing (I hope) any freedom of action yet.....
23:03 Olmert: Cease-fire will go into effect at 2am (Haaretz)
And what does Israel do if Hamas continues to send rockets?
Agreed. Hamas must be annihilated.
The only way this cease-fire is not appalling is if it might be just a temporary step before resuming military operations, after Hamas fires some more rockets. Then it would show people who are not completely in the tank for Hamas that they are the ones who are continuing the conflict.
However, if this is a prelude to Israel slinking away and simply withdrawing troops then of course it is a disaster.
Israel must not back down until the security situation in Gaza has been changed permanently for the better.
23:19 Barak: We will renew our operations if the need calls (Haaretz)
Another add-on to the numerous "want for change via funding" the U.N. is focused on at the cost of innocent lives given to humanity via terrorism.
The 348th (or so) "cease fire" to give terrorists time to rearm and keep their agenda going.
This isn't the first time Israel had a premature evacuation before finishing the big trick.
I hope this disgusts the majority of the Jewish populace and Bebe's party gets voted in. But I'm not too sure about that.
Because this war is going on during the Israeli political campaign, Bebe stated at the onset he would not comment on the war in a negative way. He has been a statesman in keeping his word.
I think it's time he comes out with a comment or two. However, polls in Israel may show he's running neck and neck with the woman candidate. He probably can't afford to look like a heavy critic right now.
Or can he? I hope he learned from McCain that passivity doesn't cut the bagel.
Leni
Arm-chair general huh? Israel wants peace and does not want Rockets fired at it.
Hamas still exists
The Israeli government never officially said they were going to remove Hamas. That's the big difference between now and 2006 in Lebanon and why this operation is successful.
and will be lobbing bombs over continuously.
They are going to think twice about that. This was the largest assault on the Gaza strip yet. The Palestinians never suffered this large of causalities ever in under a month. Israel also said they are coming back if the Rockets start up again.
Did you actually expect Israel to destroy the entire Gaza with everyone inside?
Completely destroying Hamas is not practical with just a Gaza strip attack, and especially without a total occupation. Saying that, they sure did f#^& Hamas up. Hamas took more causalities and losses then Hezbollah did in 2006.
They already said they were NOT going to reoccupy Gaza, which is one of several things that has to happen if they are going to wipe out Hamas totally.
Hamas is just not in the Gaza FYI, and destroying them in one spot does not destroy them all over. The external leadership calls as much shots as the internal leadership, and Hamas operatives are all over the middle east (Syria, Lebanon, Iran)
Israel got their deterrent status back, which they had lost after the Lebanon conflict in 2006. By NOT making claims they were going to finish off Hamas completely; and by creating their own ceasefire ... Not only can they declare themselves the winner, but the stupid biased UN can not force Israel to take positions that are not in their best interest.
Reality says fighting will continue for thousands more years in the Middle East as it has never ended since the beginning of time and never WILL END.
And this brings me to my point: Every couple years you need to pound the animals into the sea to let them know who is boss. Israel has created ceasefire conditions favorable to herself and her security.
Liberals never try to ask (or answer) the most obvious, simple yet intelligent questions:
Can there ever be “peace” with Hamas?
Will a “cease-fire” really promote peace?
Do Pali-Nazis really want co-existence with Israel?
Does all the “peace making” actually contribute to peace?
Has anything from the “Oslo accords” onward actually been a vehicle for peace?
With all the pressures put on Israel for concessions, has any of that ever helped to resolve Middle East problems?
etc. etc.
11:42 PM 6 Rockets have fallen since the cease fire was announced.
It’s OK, that’s just another Islamist form of “celebration” ala firing guns in the air..... /SARCASM
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