Israel and Hamas have both agreed to another 72-hour ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, scheduled to begin 8 AM local time Tuesday morning. Previous ceasefires have rarely lasted more than an hour or two.
The plan is for the truce to include indirect negotiations in Cairo toward a long-term settlement to end the conflict outright. The Palestinian delegation actually already arrived yesterday, and are just waiting for Israel to send one.
The last such ceasefire and talks were to have begun Friday, and ended almost immediately with Israel attacking a tunnel, which they insisted didn’t count, then blaming Hamas for violating the ceasefire when fighters in the tunnel fired back at them.
Israel is therefore going into this ceasefire with an even bigger chip on its shoulder, insisting it doesn’t trust that Hamas will actually comply, though with Israel claiming to have destroyed every single tunnel in Gaza that will no longer be a specific issue.
The bigger question is whether Israel even wants a negotiated settlement, as signs in recent days have pointed to them hoping to just let the war sort of die down on its own without making any concessions to the bombarded strip, and officials have talked up the open-ended nature of the war, with more missions to announce and to complete.
With that 225 million from Obama, they'll even have a bigger chip on their shoulder.
Israel does not want a settlement, temporary or lasting, on the issue of the occupied territories. That in itself should be obvious to anyone who has watched world events in the region for the past twenty years- it's just not going to happen until Israel is FORCED to agree to and abide by a few rules. And it's a given that Hamas isn't going to stop its resistance to Israeli occupation forces until Israel quits Gaza altogether and opens a path for independent statehood for both Gaza and the West Bank. Israel naturally doesn't want this because then it will have clearly defined borders and won't be able to grab land whenever it wants to.
Its good that the genocidal killing of Palestinians has come to a halt; but this should not be a situation where the nature of this action is forgotten. Genocide is a crime against humanity and can never be forgotten or excused, and those responsible must be brought to justice. With the United States both guilty, and on the side of Israel I doubt anything can be done in the short term, but we must at least bear witness and pass this on the next generation so that when America's decline comes those responsible can finally be brought to answer. The images might be graphic, but it is time to teach your children and grandchildren. They must know of this, before the propaganda makes it old news or succeeds in blaming the victims.
Nothing will happen until the motto "Israel has a right to defend itself," is erased from the lips of politicians in Washington.