The Israeli Cabinet on Tuesday accepted an Egyptian proposal for a cease-fire in the conflict with Hamas in Gaza, the Prime Minister's office said. Ref. CNN
I doubt it is going to be over this quickly, but I really wish I could understand the motivation of the Palestinians in this case. There are only a few potential outcomes from their actions: Continue to lob rockets into Israeli Territory and recieve disproportionate destruction in return. They could be going for the sympathy global vote here, but it will be at the cost of their own lives and many support Israel's right to defend themselves, so would have to be hoping that the disproportionality would turn people off - but again, the price is their own lives. The could be hoping that their arab brothers will join in against the Israelis. Lebanon has been game for a while (At least some groups within it), however, Israel has shown that they could easily march through large swaths of Lebanon. Hope for a Syrian overflow of hostilities? I guess it is possible, but would probably be more like some of the support groups of the rebels would have to peel off and join the fight against the Israelis. They do that and basically Assad just runs over the rebels and kills without much impedance at all. I really don't understand the motivation as none of these seem likely to have any chance of success. Anyway, the motivation cannot be to bring the Israelis back to the negotiation table. They don't work that way.
Name: Iab
Country:
Comments: When man has lot his family and friends what matters that he will lose his own life if only to take revenge on his enemies that have wronged him?
I understand that sentiment totally. However, on this round of missile volleys, it was obviously started by the killing of the 3 Israeli teens. The 3 teens arent kidnapped and killed, we have the status quo. However, after the killing, we get into the typical seasaw situation of missile tossing and killing. Additionally, this is being orchestrated at higher levels than one man losing his family. So, what is the goal?
Dennis Prager tends to have an interesting view on these issues although sometimes biased to one side. Below he develops an example that he feels explains what is happening between Israel and Palestine:
You might even take it further in that it is not just hiding their leaders amongst civilians, but they actually play on western rules of engagement by moving troops/weapons around in marked ambulances because they know that Israel won't take out a ambulance. While it is very clever and when you are small fighting someone larger, it makes sense, as you have to use all methods of victory at your disposal.
However, this seems like a duplicate of the last several uprisings in that it will last a couple more weeks. Israel will wipe out a lot of the Palestinian leaders and resulting many civilian casualties in the process. The Palestinians will launch many missiles and a few will hit. The death counts will be grossly disproportionate. There will be an eventual cease fire. There will be little desire of the Israelis to go to the negoiation table for a good while. Even if the Palestinians wanted to go to the negoiation table after this, their entire managment will have flipped and won't be stable for a good while.
With the catholic crusades, the goal was to convert the conquered and to establish governments to their liking (And plunder). I read where the goal of Hamas it the elimination of the Jewish State. If so, then they are really giving it a poor attempt. Unless the Israelis all run under a fairly uncontrolled missile, that just isn't happening. I do think if the opportunity presented itself, like it nearly did without UN intervention at the birth of Israel after WWII, that they would wipe Israel off the map, but it is not realistic to think it could happen with the actions carried out now.
Why 3 teenagers? Hamas knew that there would be retaliation. Did they not think they would be found? If so, they did a really bad job of hiding them in fairly easily to be found shallow graves.
Is it that the oppression of the Israel State for the Palestinians hasnt be front line news in a long time and they wanted to bring it back to the surface? Perhaps it spurs donations? Perhaps it is what they feel they need to give to the cause (A life or two - perhaps their own)? Perhaps the economic situation in the Palestinian territories is so bad that this is a case of a bored military finding something to do.
I am a fairly rationale person, but I really do not see the rationale in these actions. I suspect that that is due to my personal views on suicide or suicide missions.