Olmert: Cabinet has approved Gaza cease-fire

Source: Ha'aretz and AP

Prime Minster Ehud Olmert on Saturday night announced that Israel's government has voted in favor of a unilateral cease-fire in the Gaza Strip, and will halt its fire from 2 A.M.

The announcement comes after three weeks of fighting in the coastal strip, as Israel launched a massive offensive aimed at halting years of daily rocket fire on its southern communities.

A strong hint at the announcement came earlier Saturday, when Defense Minister Ehud Barak said that Israel was very close to meeting the objectives of its 22-day-old offensive in Hamas-ruled Gaza. "After three weeks of Operation Cast Lead, we are very close to reaching the goals and securing them through diplomatic agreements," Barak said during a visit to the south of the country, according to a statement from his office.

The cabinet is meeting now and will hold a vote on Saturday evening to decide whether to enact a unilateral cease-fire with Hamas in the Gaza Strip.


Read more: http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1056178.html

:shrug:

and it seemed like a lot of double talk to me. Yeah we are going to cease operations unless of course we feel like resuming operations, etc, etc.

I think this has more to do with 01/20/09 than anything else.

It's rolling on the Haatrez crawler now.

What are these "goals" that Israel has supposedly achieved, if their stated goal, "to stop the rockets", has failed?

Or does this cease fire have little to do with Hamas and more to do with a train that is snaking its way from Philadelphia to D.C. today?

(rhetorical questions)

must be a night light.

nt

I am skeptical about how long it will last, as it is completely unilateral. Another few rockets and we could be back where we were a few days ago.

slow strangling will continue

They just wanted to kill as many Gazans as they could while they still have a chance!

They should all be at The Hague!

That was the first reasonable decision he made!

White phosphorus. Bombing schools. Bombing the UN representatives.

If Hamas fires more rockets or fires upon the IDF still in Gaza, what happens?

Will the cease-fire be off? Firing back on?

Hamas won't honor the deal if Israel stays and Israel won't go if Hamas keeps fighting.

And what about Gilad Shalit?

Now, all of sudden this is a sticking point.

Israel says they're very close to achieving their goals, yet Shalit is still in Hamas' hands and most of the leadership of Hamas is still alive and in power.

If the goal was to turn Gaza into a humanitarian hell-zone with no food, running water, etc, then mission accomplished!

Reuters:

"According to a partial estimate by the Palestinian Statistics Bureau, more than 20,000 residential buildings have been damaged in Israeli air, sea and ground attacks, and some 4,000 totally destroyed."

http://af.reuters.com/article/egyptNews/idAFLH9909420090117?feedType=RSS&feedName=egyptNews&pageNumber=3&virtualBrandChannel=0&sp=true

That shouldn't take too long to fix. Espeically, if Israel keeps the border crossings closed!

where 1/3 of Gazans live.

It doesn't get more clear than that. If that happens the thinking in the Israeli population will be "We unilaterally ceased fire and then they just kept firing rockets at civilians, guess we didn't hit them hard enough." I hope Hamas is just trying to act tough because they want to save face, not because they really want the war to continue. But we'll see. If Hamas keeps firing rockets like they say they will and one hits a kindergarten or something, you can bet Israel will end its unilateral ceasefire (under PM Netanyahu who would win walking away if that happens). This seems bad all around, but the only logic I see in Hamas so far is that they want this war to continue (or, as we at DU say, they feel they have no option but to fire rockets because they are so desperate and it will continue). Maybe they want to put Obama in a pickle.

I hope that they take this window to step towards peace. Hopefully, a breath without bombs can give room for cool heads. Hamas has little more than emotion to bargain with. I shudder at what Gazans must think of Israel, right now. And, were I in that situation, I cannot claim to know how I would react.

Israel lost the PR war on the International level. Gazans lost on a humanitarian level. Hamas lost militarily. I wouldn't want to be any of them.

War is a less than zero sum game.

Israel is still occupying Gaza. Hamas has said they will continue fighting until Israel is occupying Gaza.

It does not get any more clear than that.

Israel plans to stay in place a few days without attacking and see if Hamas will cut out the rockets. If Hamas will do that, Israel will withdraw (and if Hamas stops firing and Israel doesn't withdraw, Hamas will probably start firing rockets again).

This is definitely Israel giving a ceasefire a chance to take hold. If Hamas wants to continue the fighting, well, then Israel will move to step 3 and I'm sorry for the civilians who will suffer the consequences.

Or maybe Obama will side with Hamas and tell them to keep firing rockets at Israel while Israel doesn't respond.

also, does anyone have any more detailed info on how long the cease fire is, other than UFN?

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Thus I do not believe there is any time frame involved, just an agreement from Israel to cease its fire.

It seems like the idea is to wait and see how Hamas responds.

Source: Wall Street Journal

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said late Saturday that Israel would halt its military offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, laying out a cease-fire plan that will go into effect at 2 a.m. Sunday morning local time.

Mr. Olmert said Israel had made no deal with Hamas, but was acting unilaterally after receiving assurances from Egypt, the U.S. and other Western powers that they would assist Israel in preventing arms smuggling into Gaza. Mr. Olmert said Israel forces will maintain their positions inside Gaza for the time being, and said Israel would resume military operations if Hamas continued to fire rockets into Israel.

Mr. Olmert said that if Hamas holds fire, Israel will consider a troop pull-out, but he gave no timetable. Hamas officials in recent days have said they didn't intend to honor any cease-fire without an immediate withdrawal of Israel troops from Gaza. Palestinian officials expressed disappointment that Israel didn't go far enough in committing to a pullback.

"We had hoped that the Israeli announcement would be matched by total cessation of hostilities and the immediate withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza," Saeb Erekat, a top aide to Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas, told the Associated Press. "I am afraid that the presence of the Israeli forces in Gaza means that the cease fire will not stand and will so fragile."

Read more: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123222789542093543.html

the citizens of gaza now understand.they can only vote for those who are acceptable to israel and the united states.

Source: New York Times

JERUSALEM — Prime Minister Ehud Olmert of Israel announced late Saturday night that the Israeli military would begin a unilateral cease-fire in Gaza within hours while negotiations continued on how to stop the resupply of Hamas through smuggling from Egypt.

Mr. Olmert, who said all Israeli objectives for the war had been reached, said Israel was responding positively to a call by President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt earlier in the day for an immediate cease-fire, in a clearly orchestrated move by two countries that both see the Hamas movement in Gaza as a threat. Meanwhile, Hamas leaders outside Gaza have insisted that the group will fight on, regardless of any Israeli declaration.

The announcement came on a day in which Israel was again criticized by the United Nations over civilian deaths in Gaza — this time after a tank fired at a United Nations school, killing two young brothers taking shelter there.

,snip>

The Israeli cease-fire, which becomes effective at 2 a.m. Sunday, could mean an effective end to a three-week-old war that has killed at least 1,200 Palestinians, with more buried under rubble, and 13 Israelis. But even then, the shape of any lasting peace was far from clear.



Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/18/world/middleeast/18mideast.html?hp

---

Stats from article: 13 Israelis to 1,200 Palestinians...objectives reached...:sarcasm:

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Israel shells UN school in Gaza

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/01/20091177657498163.html

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