Video: Khaled Meshaal on the 'cease fire'
This is a video of the widely reported interview with Hamas politburo chief Khaled Mesha'al that took place on Friday on al-Jazeera. The big story was that Mesha'al said that Hamas' search for a 'cease fire' is 'only tactical.' But that's not the real story here because it leaves a question unanswered: If Hamas' search for a 'cease fire' is 'only tactical,' why would Israel be stupid enough to give it to them? Let's go to the videotape to see Mesha'al's answer and then I will have a couple more comments.The lesson of this interview is how foolish it is for Israel to make 'unilateral concessions' as we did in southern Lebanon and Gaza. When we do that, the terrorists just expect more.
What Mesha'al didn't mention is that earlier in the week there were stories about the Bush administration pressuring Olmert for a 'cease fire' before President Bush's arrival here next week. I don't expect that to happen. Not only does the IDF oppose such a 'cease fire' - so does his own Defense Minister. If anything, the IDF has stepped up operations this week.
In the absence of a significant number of 'Palestinian' civilians killed (which Hamas will be all too happy to arrange when they are desperate enough), don't expect a 'cease fire' anytime soon.
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 6:18 PM
1 Comments:
The point is Khaled Meshaal is not even offering to deal with Israel as a legitimate party. On the Arab side, the expectation is Israel is an exhausted and weak country that's on the run and will disappear from history like the Soviet Union. Its up to Israel to disappoint such hopes and in particular average Israelis will have to show the sort of staying power that's not apparent in their own government. A hudna with Hamas or any other Arab terror group will never buy Israel true peace.
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