March 13, 2008

Israel makes ceasefire conditional on its right to kill

According to the Guardian, Hamas have offered a ceasefire but Israel will only accept it if Hamas accepts Israel's right to keep killing Palestinians:
Hamas called for a ceasefire with Israel yesterday, demanding a "reciprocal, comprehensive and simultaneous" cessation of the conflict in Gaza and the West Bank.

Ismail Haniyeh, the head of Hamas's administrative arm in Gaza, said the group would end violence if Israel stopped its military activity throughout the Palestinian territory, lifted the sanctions on Gaza and reopened the besieged strip's borders......

But Hamas's stipulation that Israel end its extra-judicial killings of Palestinian combatants not only in Gaza but also in the West Bank could be a deal breaker.

"Everyone who is serious about security, the Americans, the Europeans, the US and PA security, know there are dozens of cells of Hamas, Islamic Jihad and renegade Fatah groups [in the West Bank]," Regev said.
Now this could have been expressed as Israel reserving the right to respond if fired on or even to defend itself but Israel has so debased the meaning of words like "retaliate", "respond" and "defend" they have been deprived of all meaning. So now they cut through that dross and simply say, you can cease firing if you want but we're going to carry on killing.

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