Sign Of Impending Victory?
Here's a stunner for the people who keep up the flood of negativity about Israel. The meme goes something like, "Israel can't win by force because….." insert whatever logic.
Only the Palestinians appear to be folding in Gaza.
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip – Militant groups in the Gaza Strip have agreed to stop firing missiles at Israel at midnight Saturday, senior Palestinian officials said.
The unilateral cease-fire is aimed at ending an Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip that began June 28, three days after militants raided an Israeli army post, killing two soldiers and capturing a third, 19-year-old Cpl. Gilad Shalit, the officials said on condition of anonymity because the agreement was reached at a closed meeting.
More than 100 Palestinians have been killed since then in daily attacks by Israeli warplanes, tanks and artillery, and the militants have fired hundreds of homemade rockets at southern Israel.
The agreement was reached in Gaza City following meetings sponsored by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh aimed at finding a way out of the crisis in Gaza, the officials said. Several Palestinian militant groups attended, including Haniyeh's Hamas and Islamic Jihad, which have been blamed for many of the rocket attacks on southern Israel, the officials said.
Got that? They are unilaterally stopping the launching of rockets into Israel. If they now give up the kidnapped soldier, Israel will have won exactly what they wanted when the offensive began. This is potentially enormous news.
UPDATE: Scratching Post may have hit on something here. Meanwhile, Captain Ed thinks this is just a triangle offensive.
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The Scratching Post — July 22, 2006 @ 3:04 pm
By crosspatch, July 22, 2006 @ 11:31 am
Still unconfirmed and reports on Fox say contacts with the various terrorist groups in Gaza (PIJ, Hamas, Fatah) say they have heard nothing of this. Fox is reporting that it is possible the word hasn’t “filtered down” yet. I find that comment a bit odd. It implies some central authority over the various groups which the PA has been quick to discount in the past when these groups have launched their own private wars on Israel.
I am not sure it is possible to negotiate with any central authority in Gaza as there appear to be 4 different independent forces operating there.