Cease fire proposal offers little to Israel

Jerusalem Post:

The presidents of Egypt and France have proposed a plan to end the escalating Israeli-Hamas conflict in Gaza, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said Tuesday.

Kouchner told a high-level meeting of the UN Security Council that the plan would bring together the main parties, including the Palestinian Authority, to take "all measures" to end the conflict, including the key issues of protecting Gaza's borders and reopening all crossings.

Kouchner said Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and French President Nicolas Sarkozy had announced the plan at a press conference.

"We are awaiting the Israeli response and we harbor hope that it will be a positive one," Kouchner said.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's spokesman, Mark Regev told The Associated Press, "We are holding off comments on that for the time being."

The Mubarak-Sarkozy plan was immediately supported by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, who said, "I express my support for the plan set in motion today by president Mubarak and president Sarkozy."

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Kouchner told the council that Mubarak and Sarkozy proposed "a plan for a resolution to the crisis," at a press conference.

"A halt to violence is the immediate priority," he said. "The Security Council must support and encourage these promising endeavors. All states in the region must assist this and contribute toward this hope favoring moderation."

According to Israeli officials, the cease-fire proposal is based on the establishment of an international force to prevent the smuggling of arms from Sinai into Gaza, which would augment a group of US military engineers already on the Egyptian side of the border.

Egypt said on Tuesday night that it was proposing an immediate cease-fire, followed by talks on long-term arrangements for borders and crossings.

Mubarak announced the plan in a brief statement after talks with Sarkozy in the Egyptian resort of Sharm e-Sheikh.

Mubarak did not specifically mention Hamas by name, but a Hamas delegate who came to Cairo for talks with the Egyptians Tuesday said the group would take the proposal back to its Damascus, Syria headquarters for discussion. The delegate did not wish to be named, due to the sensitivity of the discussions.

Under the proposal, Israel and Hamas would accept an immediate cease-fire for a limited period, which would allow safe passages to open for humanitarian aid to Gaza and give Egypt time to continue its efforts for a comprehensive and lasting cease-fire, Reuters reported.

Egypt would then invite both Israel and the Palestinian side to an urgent meeting to reach arrangements and guarantees to ensure that the current escalation does not recur. These talks will deal with all the issues at hand, including protecting the border, reopening crossing points and lifting the blockade, it said.

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I see no benefit for Israel in this deal. Hamas word is clearly no good and even if Hamas stopped firing rockets, it would not stop other terrorist from doing so. The talks would be meaningless since Hamas's death cult has no interest in an agreement which would allow Israel to survive.

Israel would be much better off prosecuting its war against Hamas and destroying the leadership of the death cult. Once the infestation of Gaza has been removed, Israel could then invite the PA back in to take care of the Palestinians.

There is really go good reason for the Israelis to stop now other than to save its enemies so they can make war against Israel in the future.

Haaretz reports that Secretary of State Rice supports the deal. I suspect that is because the State Department likes to see meaningless agreements signed so it looks like they are accomplishing something. In fact all they are doing is putting forward the day of the next round of war when they keep Israel from defeating the Hamas death cult.

The so called international force to keep Hamas from receiving weapons would be as meaningless as the one that was supposed to stop Hezballah from restocking its rockets. That force did nothing other than watch the resupply take place under their noses.