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Last update - 02:08 08/01/2009
A welcome initiative
By Haaretz Editorial
Tags: hamas, gaza, israel 

The international initiative for a cease-fire in Gaza has many fathers: foreign ministers, prime ministers and three presidents - Hosni Mubarak, Nicolas Sarkozy and George W. Bush. Of them all, Egypt's Mubarak is the most essential in any agreement. Egypt borders the Gaza Strip at divided Rafah, has a peace agreement with Israel, relations with the Palestinians (Hamas and Mahmoud Abbas separately, with efforts to connect them), and its central role in the Arab and Muslim world encourages it to seek a leadership role. The Mubarak initiative therefore is a welcome one on which the Israel Defense Forces can base an end to its operation, with conditions acceptable to Israel.

The details are important and can determine whether the operation will be viewed by the Israeli public as successful or disappointing. But the wind went out of the operation's sails the moment the focus moved to the diplomatic arena. Its expansion at the end of 48 hours of discussions on implementing the initiative will be, and certainly look, unnecessary.

As long as the initiative is still being considered, in indirect Israel-Egypt-Hamas talks, it is Israel's right and obligation to ensure the security of its soldiers in the field and its citizens on the home front, who are still under rocket fire. In the immediate future Israel should not be expected to limit its military action as needed - especially not from the air and in the captured areas on the ground. Wisdom nevertheless dictates against sending in brigades and divisions, including reserves, to occupy more territory.
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It is best to view Mubarak's initiative as a positive introduction on the way to a converging of the wills and needs of the parties involved in the fighting. Israel demands, and rightfully so, an end to the firing of rockets and their replenishment. Hamas wants more than anything else to maintain its rule in Gaza and satisfy the people's yearnings, first and foremost for the opening of the crossings. Only a formulation that satisfies the needs of both sides has a chance of lasting.

The Egyptian-French-American initiative gives politicians leverage to stop the IDF's advance in dense urban areas of Gaza, and to stop the rocket fire on Israeli communities that led the cabinet to decide on the operation.
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