Posted on 07/14/2014 1:34:52 PM PDT by Star Traveler
Egypt sources offer cease-fire deal starting 9 A.M. on Tuesday; top IDF officer says Hamas ready for cease-fire; two sisters hurt by rocket in south; soldier and boy lightly wounded; IDF downs Gaza drone over southern Israel; Israeli military shells Lebanon after cross-border rocket attack.
Since the start of the operation, more than 700 rockets have landed within Israel. Only a fraction landed in urban regions. The Iron Dome, which is only meant to intercept rockets that are headed for such areas, has an 87 percent success rate.
The inner cabinet met late on Sunday to discuss a ground operation. As of Sunday noon, 42,000 of the 48,000 reservists authorized by the cabinet had been called up in preparation for a possible ground invasion.
Latest updates:
11:14 P.M. Israel's security cabinet to meet Tuesday morning to discuss Egyptian cease-fire proposal. (Barak Ravid).
(Excerpt) Read more at haaretz.com ...
Must be time to reload..
Well, from the IDF itself, Hamas has another three thousand rockets ... and from the previous rate of fire, that would take another three or more weeks to run down. I’m not sure what they would be reloading ... ;-) ...
Why a cease fire? Why not an unconditional surrender?
There will be a cease fire when they run out of rockets — not before.
The time will come when Egypt has to take back its people from Israel (Gaza, etc.). This, Egypt naturally does not wish to do, but when it happens it will make a ceasfire (and even a genuine peace, maybe) possible.
Hamas hasn’t run out of missiles yet - have to wait while the rest of the world keeps slamming Israel for retaliating.
In a surprise move, Hamas offered a compromise plan: Israel ceases fire, while Hamas keeps firing rockets.
History has not been kind to Israel when it starts ground operations, in terms of cost and casualties vs. return, and that’s just what Iran-Hamas etc. want, to get at real troops.
When the terrorists are being hammered from the air, they can’t do squat.
And any possible “cease-fire” should be entered into only on the understanding that one more rocket attack ends that cease-fire.
I have read in Israeli news that there is talk of ending Hamas once and for all. That’s not really as far fetched as it sounds. You would still have the PA to deal with. They’re still fairly extreme in their views and it won’t change anything in terms of the number of Muslims that want Israel destroyed. But it WOULD at least mean that Hamas will no longer be a factor in the government.
Whether that would leave a power vacuum or whether the existing PA would expand into the space left and not miss them... who knows.
Either way, not having them around would be good in general. Israel has said all along that now that Hamas has attached itself at least semi-officially to the local governance they are now even more responsible and accountable for their actions. You can’t be “official” and “non-official” at the same time. At least not forever.
What’s to reload?! They’ve got another 3,000 missiles according to the IDF, which will run them another three weeks or more!
There’s a problem with truly “ending” Hamas ... starting with the problem if it is actually possible at all. First let me start with something here ...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3180125/posts
Quoting from article ...
On the other hand, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is entirely relevant to the conflict. Netanyahu has chosen — correctly, on moral, factual, and strategic grounds — to do as much damage to Hamas in the Gaza Strip as can be done by the highly-capable Israeli military. Netanyahu knows, as Tony Blair admonished Israel this week, that he cannot entirely stamp out Hamas because it exists as a political and ideological entity, not only a terrorist force. But he can destroy vast parts of its networks, its command structure, and its rocket arsenal.
— — —
Now, for sake of discussion, let’s say you are able to end Hamas in Gaza (which I don’t think is possible because the price is way too high for Israel to pay) ... then Israel is faced with being a military government in charge of a civilian population, in which you would have thousands of Israeli soldiers as easy targets right inside Gaza.
Right now, Gaza is semi-autonomous, and the Israeli military doesn’t set foot inside there, leaving everything to the Hamas government. When a government’s military steps in and conquers an autonomous area (they’re not technically a country, although Israel has left them to be one, within certain constraints) — that country has to provide for the civil government, and initially that would necessarily be a military government until such time as Israel could set up local officials and elections and all the necessary infrastructure.
Now let me tell you - that - is the NIGHTMARE SCENARIO that Israel wants ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with.
I don’t think Israel EVER do that and take over with a military government, and move to installing a new civilian government. You talk about “no cooperation” with the “locals” ... That would basically define Israel’s position there and open Israel up to the “occupation” argument and make things also worse politically in the world for Israel.
Don’t believe the hype: Hamas isn’t desperate for a truce
The Times of Israel | Monday, July 14, 2014 | Avi Issacharoff
Posted on 7/14/2014 8:40:32 AM by Star Traveler
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/3179929/posts
Update:
....”11:14 P.M.....Israel’s security cabinet to meet Tuesday morning to discuss Egyptian cease-fire proposal”....
Interesting as I heard a couple weeks ago they were going to get ‘SiSi’ to broker in Iraq as well, between Sunni’s and Shia’s.
Very interesting to see Gen. SiSi rise as a International leader.....especially in light of how the world stage is lining up. Remember he was more than reluctant to assume Egypt’s Presidency. This could prove to be more than interesting...good to keep an eye on this now.
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