Same old, same old truce offered

The first line of this Jerusalem Report really says it all:

Israel has rejected an offer by Hamas to renew a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip, Israel Radio reported Friday.

But here is the context:

Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh's office reportedly contacted a senior diplomatic source in Jerusalem through a third party before the cabinet decided on Wednesday to declare Gaza a "hostile territory." After the cabinet decision, the source responded to Hamas's proposal, saying Israel would not hold talks with the group at this time.

On Thursday, Haniyeh met with representatives of the Islamic Jihad and the Popular Resistance Committees in Gaza and asked them to abide by any cease-fire agreement Hamas would strike with Israel. The groups expressed willingness to assent, but wanted to wait for Israel's response.

Meretz chairman Yossi Beilin said Friday that if Israel has in fact rejected Hamas's proposed cease-fire, it is an irresponsible decision both for the residents of the western Negev and for kidnapped soldier Gilad Schalit. "Israel has no other real solution to these problems, and it must reach a cease-fire with Hamas," Beilin continued. "Israel can do so through a third party, parallel to the diplomatic process with the PLO," Beilin said.

Like neogiating with the PLO worked out so well and Oslo Accord was a great success – just ask the thousands maimed and dead.

In November 2006, Hamas in the Gaza Strip agreed to stop launching kassam attacks against Israeli civilians in exchange for a full military pull-out of the IDF from the Gaza Strip. The IDF were operating in the Gaza Strip (Operation Summer Rains) after the June 2006 kidnapping by Hamas of an Israeli soldier from Israel proper.

Here’s the NY Times account of that truce:

SDEROT, Israel, Nov. 26 — A cease-fire in Gaza appeared to be holding on Sunday after Palestinian factions stopped firing rockets at Israel in exchange for an Israeli troop withdrawal from the territory.

The cease-fire, part of an agreement reached late Saturday by Israeli and Palestinian leaders to end five months of fighting in the territory, was to have taken effect at 6 a.m. but got off to a shaky start when Palestinian militants belonging to Hamas and Islamic Jihad launched nine rockets into southern Israel.

One rocket crashed through the roof of a house in this Israeli border town but caused no injuries. The other rockets landed in open areas. By 10:15 a.m., the rocket fire had stopped.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert of Israel, who had been under intense domestic pressure to authorize an even bigger military operation in Gaza to stop the rocket attacks, spoke of restraint. “The state of Israel is a very strong country,” Mr. Olmert said. “It is strong enough to fight terror, and it is strong enough to show restraint in order to give an opportunity for the cease-fire to come into full comprehensive and practical effect.”

In Sderot, which has borne the brunt of the Qassam rocket attacks, residents ventured out in the streets to shop and get some air, some of them for the first time in days.

Since allowing the ‘opportunity for the cease-fire to come into full comprehensive and practical effect’ more than 700 kassams have been launched Sderot and a whole new generation of Sderot children have been growing up to the sounds of air raid sirens.

And Hamas wants another truce for exactly the same thing. Yossi Beilin thinks it’s a good idea. Theses guys are such jokers.