This is the fundamental point that must be remembered. The Palestinians had a workable deal handed to them and it was spat upon by the leadership. The Palestinians would be well on their way to establishing themselves as a people instead of a population ruled by a bloodthirsty mob had they accepted that deal. Even right of centre Palestinians agree that it was a huge error by their beloved leader who, as it turns out, was just another megalomaniac lining his bank account in Switzerland. Now they have Hamas, and face years of marginalization and the deaths of as-yet-uncounted numbers of their most precious resource - their young people.
Anyway, the good guys are winning, the bad guys are begging for mercy: Hamas is pushing for a cease-fire "Hamas is nervous," remarked a senior Palestinian Authority official in Ramallah. "All their leaders have gone underground. They didn't expect such a massive attack from Israel." Beleaguered Hamas leaders on Sunday signaled their willingness to reach a cease-fire with Israel, sources close to Hamas said. The sources said Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh sent urgent messages to the leaders of Egypt, Jordan, Qatar and Saudi Arabia urging them to work toward ending the IDF military operations in the Gaza Strip. The sources told The Jerusalem Post that Haniyeh and other Hamas leaders also appealed to Turkey to intervene and convince Israel to halt its offensive. Hamas leaders and spokesmen expressed deep concern over the failure of the Arab and Islamic governments to put pressure on Israel and the US to stop the IDF operations. "The Arabs and Muslims are not only sleeping," said a Hamas official. "They are actually partners to the Israeli aggression." http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1204473062644&pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull
Yep, that's exactly what I am talking about. 2.5 years later Gaza is not dead and no one there has starved to death. Moreover Hamas had enough resources to stage a coup and take over Gaza, they have enough resources now to buy/build/smuggle more and better rockets, bombs, weapons. As I said, take you problems to Hamas and Egypt. The West Bank is enjoying unprecedented prosperity and economic boom and they did not even make peace with Israel, they merely stopped attacking it and are negotiating (hopefully in good faith). But the Waels of the world never learn, they are too busy hating Israel. All you and your Hamas brethren needed to do was to stop rocket attacks on Israeli towns.
Oh, those evil Israelis: In the midst of the fighting, the Defense Ministry gave permission for a massive humanitarian convoy to enter southern Gaza through the Sufa crossing on Sunday afternoon. The Gaza Strip Coordination and Liaison Administration oversaw the delivery of 62 trucks, including three carrying medical supplies (bandages, water pumps, tourniquets, etc.), seven with World Food Program cooking oil, seven carrying sugar, nine bearing milk products, eight carrying fruit, two with water purification supplies and four with meat and fish products. http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1204473062896&pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull
"I condemn Palestinian rocket attacks and call for the immediate cessation of such acts of terrorism," he said." So as most rational people do, the UN takes a position that both sides are in the wrong...which they are.
"Anyway, the good guys are winning, the bad guys are begging for mercy..." Sounds like something straight out of George Bush's piehole...
LOL. Great, thanks Mr. Ban, that helps a lot. He also said that he condemns excessive use of force so I am sure he did the best he could and contributed greatly to preventing and alleviating this crisis. Let's consider his mission accomplished and not talk about him and the UN any more. too bad you're not among rational people. As always you are MIA when Israel (or the US or the West) is attacked even if it happens daily. Then you rear your ugly head the moment the good guys start to fight back. PS Your failure to answer my questions is noted. It kinda proves my point.
Hamas's idea of ceasefire is when Islamic Jihad and other militant groups fire rockets at Israel and Israel is not able to respond because it's bound by ceasefire. That's been tried before and is not fooling anyone. Hamas is in charge of Gaza, they are the fucking Government. They don't need no stinking ceasefire to stop their population from firing rockets into neighboring countries, it's part of their job description. And if they fail or worse, refuse to do anything about it - they have only themselves to blame. Israel (or any other country) is under no obligation to accept ceasefire (as opposed to peace agreement) if it believes that the terms of the ceasefire are not beneficial and acceptable. I bet the Germans would love to have a one year ceasefire two days before they capitulated. It does not work like that in real life and the refusal to agree to ceasefire in no way explains, justifies or excuses rocket attacks against their civilian population.