- This ceasefire initiative is rather disturbing: it requires no meaningful concessions on the part of Hamas. It leaves, for example, wholly intact Hamas's extremist ideology, which calls for the destruction of Israel, and does not demand that Hamas lay down its weapons.
- A ceasefire may sound good, but in the current circumstances it will send a deadly message to Hamas and the other terror factions in the Gaza Strip: namely, that long-term terror bombardment of Israel gets you economic and humanitarian projects funded by the United Nations and Western donors, and perhaps even a seaport and airport. The ceasefire would give Hamas five to ten years to continue amassing weapons, tightening its grip on the Gaza Strip, and preparing for its next war with Israel.
- Any ceasefire agreement will be perceived as a reward for Hamas-sponsored terrorism and violence against Israel. These negotiations will spur other terrorist groups around the world to continue their attacks with the hope of gaining legitimacy and forcing the UN and the international community to negotiate also with them.
- Why is the UN apparently prepared to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in the Gaza Strip while keeping Hamas in power and even allowing it to become stronger? Why is the UN being allowed to play the role of savior of Hamas?
The Palestinian Hamas terrorist group that controls the Gaza Strip has reportedly accepted, in principle, an Egyptian and United Nations initiative for a long-term ceasefire with Israel. According to some reports, the initiative calls for a ceasefire of five to ten years in return for the easing of economic sanctions and humanitarian and economic aid to the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
This ceasefire initiative is rather disturbing: it requires no meaningful concessions on the part of Hamas. It leaves, for example, wholly intact Hamas's extremist ideology, which calls for the destruction of Israel, and does not demand that Hamas lay down its weapons.
Essentially, the message to Hamas from the international community is that it will reap rich rewards for nothing more than temporarily halting its terror attacks on Israel.
As the past few weeks have shown, Hamas appears to be more than willing to sit quietly in order to get the benefits and privileges offered by Egypt and the UN. Hamas has been facing a severe crisis as the result of the economic sanctions imposed on the Gaza Strip, particularly those initiated by its rivals in the Palestinian Authority government of President Mahmoud Abbas. Thus, Hamas is grabbing hold of the Egyptian and UN proposal as a kind of life-vest.
Once the ceasefire agreement goes into effect, Hamas will have additional time to continue amassing weapons and tightening its grip on the Gaza Strip.
Under the umbrella of the ceasefire, Hamas will be able to continue building new tunnels that will be used to infiltrate Israel to kill civilians and soldiers. Hamas will also be able to continue smuggling weapons into the Gaza Strip through tunnels along the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt. Thanks to the Egyptian and UN-brokered ceasefire agreement, Hamas will be able to do all these things without having to worry about an Israeli military response.
In other words, the proposed ceasefire agreement absolves Hamas, the de facto government in the coastal enclave, of its duties and responsibilities towards its own constituents. Hamas will no longer have to worry about improving the living conditions of the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip because the UN and the rest of the international community will be fulfilling that job.
The international community and the UN will, according to the proposed ceasefire, attend to the needs of the Palestinian population and will even launch various economic and humanitarian projects in the Gaza Strip, while Hamas leaders will be sitting in their luxurious offices and homes and laughing at the duped Western donors, who will even be funding fuel and electricity supplies to the people living under its rule.
Far more worrying is that any ceasefire agreement will be perceived as a reward for Hamas-sponsored terrorism and violence against Israel.
Since last March, Hamas has been dispatching thousands of Palestinians, including women and children, to the border with Israel as part of the so-called March of Return. As part of these protests, Palestinian have been throwing explosive devices, petrol bombs and stones at Israeli soldiers. They have also been launching hundredsof flaming kites and balloons at Israeli communities along the border with the Gaza Strip, and causing fires that have destroyed tens of thousands of acres of agricultural fields and forests.
As if that were not enough, Hamas and other Palestinian terror groups in the Gaza Strip last week again fired more than 180 rockets and projectiles at Israeli communities.
Such rocket attacks are far from uncommon; they have been taking place since Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip in 2005. It was then that Israel handed the entire Gaza Strip to the Mahmoud Abbas's Palestinian Authority (PA). In 2007, Hamas violently ejected the PA from the Gaza Strip, and has been in control of the territory since then.
A ceasefire may sound good, but in the current circumstances it will send a deadly message to Hamas and the other terror factions in the Gaza Strip: namely, that long-term terror bombardment of Israel gets you economic and humanitarian projects funded by the United Nations and Western donors and, if things go well, perhaps even a seaport and airport.
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