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Last update - 12:38 19/06/2008
Aspiring to a lengthy cease-fire
By Haaretz Editorial
Tags: truce, gaza, hamas, israel

The welcome cease-fire that is supposed to come into effect Thursday at 6 A.M. can succeed, and it is necessary to give it a real chance instead of looking for disadvantages. Once the decision was made - for which everyone who advanced it must be complimented, especially Defense Minister Ehud Barak - it makes no difference who has gained or lost on points. It is more important to keep the calm, to honor and maintain it.

In an interview with Army Radio yesterday morning, the former commander of the Gaza Division, Brigadier General (res.) Shmuel Zakai, said he is worried by the skepticism with which the government has greeted the cease-fire. "The next round of fighting with Hamas is not a decree from heaven," Zakai said. The danger is that if we incessantly expect the next war with Hamas, we will not make an effort to maintain the cease-fire, we will be dragged into provocations, and the commander will be quick to pull the trigger. Or, as Zakai put it, "Every company commander will think that it makes no difference whether we fire the next shell now or a year from now."

The aim is to create an atmosphere of restraint, calm and routine in Sderot and the Gaza Strip. Quiet has a dynamic of its own, and if that is what serves the interests of both sides it can last for years. A cease-fire does not mean only a cessation of the shooting, and therefore the simplistic equation that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has articulated in the past - "If they don't shoot then we won't shoot either" - needs fleshing out.
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The understandings reached with Egyptian mediation are designed to create a new reality: The opening of the crossings and the transfer of goods between Israel and Gaza - and especially the opening of the Rafah crossing - will allow movement to and from the Gaza Strip, without which the people of Gaza have no life. The agreement taking shape between Fatah and Hamas will perhaps look like a victory for Hamas, but if there is a unified and functioning government, and if the cease-fire holds, this will also constitute an achievement for Israel.

This is a unique agreement because of the massive Egyptian involvement both in achieving it and promising to uphold it. Egypt has made efforts to secure agreements from all the Palestinian factions, even the tiniest and most negligible. Syria, too, supports the cease-fire, and apparently Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen), about whose status Israel is concerned, is also prepared to help guard the crossings.

From Israel's perspective, the understandings on quiet that have been achieved via Egypt are just as important as a comprehensive agreement with Abu Mazen alone - which would remain on the shelf. In any case, there is no contradiction between the two.

An exchange of Palestinian prisoners for Gilad Shalit is a second, obvious stage, and it should not be abandoned. The prisons are full of Palestinians, among them Hamas parliament members who were arrested as bargaining chips for the release of soldiers. Bringing Shalit home in return for prisoners would not constitute an act of kindness to the Shalit family by the state, but rather a significant contribution to the morale of Israel Defense Forces soldiers, by upholding the norm that soldiers taken prisoner are not abandoned to their fate. It is always more worthwhile to release prisoners in return for a soldier who has been taken captive than to endanger other soldiers in a daring rescue operation that will exact a price in lives.

Related articles:
  • Israel-Hamas truce takes hold in Gaza
  • Noam Shalit: Gaza siege mustn't be lifted until Gilad freed
  • Eager yet untrusting, both sides of Gaza border await calm
  • ANALYSIS / For truce architect, Israel chose lesser of two evils
  • New dawn for kids who only know Qassams?
  • Fatigued, Gazans don't believe
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      1.   Barak Redux (Or the Looming Disaster) 03:23  |  Tod Zuckerman 19/06/08
      2.   LIKE WHAT NEIL AMSTRONG SAID IN THE MOON 09:16  |  indrajaya 19/06/08
      3.   what achievement is this haaretz 09:17  |  harzion 19/06/08
      4.   good luck to both sides 09:23  |  sandra 19/06/08
      5.   the last breather we gave the enemy led to the yom kippur war 09:25  |  harzion 19/06/08
      6.   Barak the hero! 09:41  |  Vinegar Hill. 19/06/08
      7.   utter failure 09:56  |  Cop out editorial 19/06/08
      8.   vinegar hill from spain 10:05  |  avihu 19/06/08
      9.   #4 harzion`s narrow focus.... 10:16  |  Johnboy 19/06/08
      10.   Very good first step, but the next one must follow...... 10:26  |  Swiss (Dino) 19/06/08
      11.   Nice article with an after thought paragraph at end for Shalit 10:26  |  S 19/06/08
      12.   It looks like Editorial is a banch of degenerates 10:29  |  Sal 19/06/08
      13.   # 8 Avihu 10:49  |  Vinegar Hill 19/06/08
      14.   NEXT STEP: TALK TO UNITY GOVERNMENT 10:51  |  indrajaya 19/06/08
      15.   Question: is Haaretz just very stupid or are they traitors? 11:04  |  Freethinker 19/06/08
      16.   swiss dino why do you mistreat muslims in switzerland 11:10  |  yaheskel 19/06/08
      17.   swiss dino we will leave the west bank when you 11:11  |  yaheskel 19/06/08
      18.   swiss dino the hills of the west bank is jewish land 11:13  |  yaheskel 19/06/08
      19.   swiss dino swiss muslims frequently complain 11:15  |  yaheskel 19/06/08
      20.   To Swiss (Dino) concerning the truce 11:28  |  DR D 19/06/08
      21.   Big, bold and brave - from the safety of San Francisco # 1 11:44  |  Clickfool 19/06/08
      22.   vinegar hill "my ilk" do not like to be lectured to 12:28  |  avihu 19/06/08
      23.   rather strange to hear clickfool support the palestinians 12:44  |  zebulun 19/06/08
      24.   clickfool the saudi who lives in the uk 12:48  |  yirmi 19/06/08
      25.   ARE Qassems from "splinter groups" part of the ceasefire? 13:18  |  PETER SM 19/06/08
      26.   LONG-TERM GOAL: GAZA A NEW DUBAI; PARTS OF W/B LINKED TO JORDAN 13:21  |  G. Marcus 19/06/08
      27.   CFOOL.you are pretty"brave"yourself ignoring terror on others 13:27  |  PETER SM 19/06/08
      28.   Resettle new Israeli refugees in Tel_aviv 13:56  |  Gabriel 19/06/08
      29.   Talk About Spin! 14:01  |  Jane 19/06/08
      30.   Swiss (Dino) - Shame on you 14:14  |  Gabriel 19/06/08
      31.   Flaw thinking 14:23  |  Frank 19/06/08
      32.   Ceasefire? Peace? Who do hate more? 16:49  |  Shmuel 19/06/08
      33.   Haaretz 16:52  |  j10 19/06/08
      34.   Mixed signals coming from the Arabs 16:54  |  Sam 19/06/08
      35.   the ceacefire is everything but wonderfull 16:55  |  zionist forever 19/06/08
      36.   # 22 Avihu 17:23  |  Vinegar Hill. 19/06/08
      37.   Should be: Israel will drag Cease Fire as a Deterence 17:57  |  The Archives 19/06/08
      38.   Ceasefire whilst Hamas TV TEACHES to KIDNAP IDF Soldiers 18:23  |  Linda Rivera 19/06/08
      39.   HAMAS Charter of MASS MURDER 18:33  |  Linda Rivera 19/06/08
      40.   vinegar hill i dont deal with riddles 18:34  |  avihu 19/06/08
      41.   To Harzion #3 18:38  |  Otto Rand 19/06/08
      42.   What is in it for Israel? 19:01  |  Shalom 19/06/08
      43.   Where is Gilad Shalit? 19:05  |  Herbert Kaine 19/06/08
      44.   Indra Jay 19:20  |  Mukhtar Datuk Dingah 19/06/08
      45.   No, Haaretz, the release of Shalit will be an achievement 20:39  |  Realist 19/06/08
      46.   For Herbert Kaine # 43 21:39  |  Clickfool 19/06/08
      47.   otto rand i am sorry to upset you 21:53  |  harzion 19/06/08
      48.   sorry otto that should be ari shavit 21:54  |  harzion 19/06/08
      49.   Please stop torturing us with the word "Peace" 23:48  |  Labhras 19/06/08
      50.   S # 11 another perspective 01:53  |  American in NY 20/06/08
      51.   cease fire 01:56  |  azad 20/06/08
      52.   clickfool # 21 well said! The bravest are those who aren`t there 02:10  |  American in NY 20/06/08
      53.   An "achievement" that will bring long range Iranian rockets on... 02:41  |  Chaim 20/06/08
      54.   ISRAEL KEEPS KILLING DAILY ANYWAY 04:25  |  L 20/06/08
      55.   harzion re: Benny Morris interview 04:34  |  Ramius 20/06/08
      56.   A ceasefire is more defeatism on the part of Olmert & Livni 06:03  |  ROB GOTTESMAN 20/06/08
      57.   Just another olmert gang success story 06:32  |  Arie 20/06/08
      58.   Hizbollah 07:07  |  ron 20/06/08
      59.   "If they don`t shoot then we won`t shoot either" 07:41  |  Dutch 20/06/08
      60.   Hamas doesn`t need a ceasefire they want surrender 08:09  |  Ilan 20/06/08
      61.   After Lebanon 2 ANOTHER BIG MISTAKE WITH OLMERT 08:30  |  Dagma 20/06/08
      62.   To # 35 Zionist forever - An excellent Article. 08:41  |  Pathfinder 20/06/08
      63.   Is this Another of Olmert`s Tricks? 08:59  |  Natasha 20/06/08
      64.   To Harzion #47 09:12  |  Otto Rand 20/06/08
      65.   To Harzion #47 09:13  |  Otto Rand 20/06/08
      66.   To Harzion #47 09:24  |  Otto Rand 20/06/08
      67.   For Otto Rand, in his Alice in Wonderland world # 56 09:54  |  Clickfool 20/06/08
      68.   DR D 10:50  |  Hassan 20/06/08
      69.   # 40 Avihu 11:50  |  Vinegar Hill 20/06/08
      70.   #53 Chaim, The trouble with Israel`s achievements 09:02  |  Dutch