Leaning toward False Peace
A Six Months Truce with Hamas
Egypt will present to Israel this Week
If Israel says yes, it could initiate the Start
Of a process that one day produces False Peace
Fulfilling a prophecy found in I Thessalonians 5:3-5
May 13, 2008
http://www.tribulationperiod.com/
I Thessalonians 5:3-5 – For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.
[4] But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. [5] Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness.
The three news excerpts that follow give a progression of developments over the last 48 hours which have ended with Israel leaning toward the acceptance of a six month truce which, if it holds, would likely lead into a longer term hudna.
Begin UK Guardian Excerpt
Egyptian mediator to meet Israelis after Hamas agrees ceasefire plan
Islamists make concession to end economic crisis
Initiative comes ahead of Bush visit over peace talks
Rory McCarthy in Gaza City
The Guardian
Monday May 12 2008
This article appeared in the Guardian on Monday May 12 2008 on p17 of the International section. It was last updated at 00:03 on May 12 2008.
A senior Egyptian mediator will today present to the Israeli government a new ceasefire proposal agreed with the Hamas Islamist movement that could halt the conflict in Gaza and begin to resolve the mounting economic crisis that has engulfed the strip.
Omar Suleiman, the head of Egyptian intelligence, is due to meet Israeli officials with the proposal after weeks of talks with Hamas and other Palestinian militant groups. The prospect of an initiative that might start to alleviate the economic blockade on Gaza comes two days before George Bush is due to meet Israeli and Palestinian leaders to discuss the flagging peace talks in the region.
Mahmoud Zahar, the most senior Hamas leader in Gaza, told the Guardian that his movement had agreed to the proposal in order to end the economic crisis. He said it had agreed that the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt could open and function with the involvement of representatives of Hamas’s rival, the Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas, who is based in the West Bank. This amounts to a small but important concession from Hamas.
[—–]
Zahar said he believed all the armed groups in Gaza, including Islamic Jihad, which is more hardline than Hamas, supported the ceasefire plan. It would run at first for six months and
would cover only Gaza. In the past Hamas has pushed for a ceasefire to include the West Bank, but Zahar said the proposal was restricted to Gaza at the prompting of the Egyptians.
Hamas is demanding that Israel reopen all the crossing points into Gaza, but Zahar said his group would also accept a compromise under which there is a ceasefire but only the crossing at Rafah is reopened.
European monitors would, as before, be allowed to observe and monitor the crossing but Zahar said they should not have the right to order it closed. In the past, Israel could effectively close Rafah at any time since it could determine whether
it was secure enough for European monitors to be present at Rafah. When they were not present
the crossing was closed. Asked about the role of European monitors now, Zahar said: “We have no objection. They have the full right to observe and monitor but not to close or open the gate.”
Israel would retain some influence since it still has control of the Palestinian population registry, which determines who can cross into Gaza through Rafah. Otherwise the proposal is broadly in line with a 2005 agreement on Gaza’s crossings negotiated by the US secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice. It is not clear what happens to Rafah if Israel rejects the ceasefire proposal.
Zahar, an English-speaker and a founder of Hamas, is regarded as a hardliner. Asked if he accepted a future Palestinian state in the borders of pre-1967 Palestinian land, he said: “This is not the proper time to speak about this question.”
Begin Jerusalem Post Excerpt 1
Suleiman to meet Olmert, Barak
HERB KEINON and YAAKOV KATZ, THE JERUSALEM POST
May 12, 2008
Jerusalem will listen to what Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman has to say, but is not expected to give a formal response to the deal Egypt has worked out with Hamas for a cease-fire in Gaza, diplomatic sources said Sunday, on the eve of Suleiman’s long-postponed visit.
Over the past few months, Suleiman has been scheduled to arrive for talks a number of times, but each time postponed at the last minute, apparently because of a lack of what to present in Jerusalem.
He is scheduled to meet with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Industry, Trade and Labor Minister Eli Yishai, who has said he would be willing to meet with Hamas to free kidnapped IDF soldier Cpl. Gilad Schalit.
On Monday morning, Barak will host Suleiman for breakfast at his home in Tel Aviv. Officials said Israel had not yet been told all the details of what Egypt apparently worked out with Hamas and that Barak would not immediately accept or reject the deal.
They said there would be a continuation in talks between Suleiman and the Defense Ministry’s Diplomatic-Military Bureau chief, Maj.-Gen. (res.) Amos Gilad, to clarify all outstanding matters.
Israel’s main concern is that smaller Palestinian factions will not abide by a cease-fire. In addition, Israel wants Hamas to stop all arms-smuggling across Gaza’s border with Sinai.
A senior defense official said Egypt was making greater efforts in recent weeks to curb the smuggling and to uncover tunnels under the Philadelphi Corridor.
A draft of the truce proposal was sent to the Defense Ministry last week. Its main elements include a cease-fire in Gaza for six months, during which time Israel would halt all military activity there and Hamas would stop its terrorism.
The deal also includes the reopening of the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt according to the arrangements in the agreement brokered by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in 2005. Hamas, according to the deal, would not be allowed to maintain a presence at the crossing.
Egypt, defense officials said Sunday, was trying to present the opening of Rafah as an opportunity for the Palestinian Authority to return to the Gaza Strip for the first time since Hamas’s takeover last June. Under the 2005 agreement, European monitors would redeploy at the crossing and assist PA officers from the PA’s Force 17 Presidential Guard – loyal to President Mahmoud Abbas – in running the border terminal.
Begin Jerusalem Post Excerpt 2
Israel leans toward Gaza truce, despite fatal Kassam attack
YAAKOV KATZ and HERB KEINON, THE JERUSALEM POST
May 13, 2008
An elderly woman was killed by a Kassam rocket that scored a direct hit on a western Negev community Monday evening, hours after Israeli leaders said they were leaning toward accepting an Egyptian cease-fire deal with Hamas.
Shlomit Katz, 70, of Kibbutz Gvar’am, was killed while visiting Moshav Yesha in the Eshkol Regional Council.
The deadly attack came four days after a mortar shell barrage killed Jimmy Kedoshim, 48, a father of four, as he stood in the yard of his house in Kibbutz Kfar Aza in the Negev.
Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for Monday’s attack, after which certain defense officials warned against accepting the Egyptian-proposed cease-fire with Hamas and called for a military response to the continued rocket fire. A half-dozen rockets fell in the western Negev area Monday, including one that landed in Ashkelon.
Despite the escalation in violence, officials close to Defense Minister Ehud Barak said that Israel was leaning toward accepting Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman’s truce offer, which was presented to the defense minister during a breakfast meeting at Barak’s Tel Aviv home earlier in the day. Israel plans to first gradually accept the offer and later turn it into a full-fledged cease-fire following Gilad Schalit’s release.
Defense officials said that if the Egyptian-brokered cease-fire did not last, Israel would most likely embark on a large-scale operation in the Gaza Strip against Hamas.
“If the cease-fire doesn’t work, our alternative to stopping Hamas’s attacks is by invading Gaza,” a senior official said.
During their meetings with Suleiman, both Barak and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert stressed the cease-fire needed to include the release of Schalit as well as an end to all forms of attacks on Israel from the Gaza Strip and a cessation of Hamas’s arms build-up there. Suleiman told Barak that the acceptance of the deal would not bring Schalit’s immediate release, but would expedite the process.
Barak also stressed that Israel would not continue to restrain itself from responding to the continuous missile fire from the Gaza Strip, and that Israel would be forced to take more stringent military steps if the attacks did not stop.
The defense minister also told Suleiman that Israel would demand assurances from Egypt that it would increase its efforts to curb weapons smuggling under the Philadelphi Corridor. Suleiman said that Egypt was making more efforts and hoped to receive US-made tunnel-detection systems in the coming weeks to add to those efforts.
Suleiman, according to officials in the Prime Minister’ s Office,
said he would take those conditions back, discuss them with Hamas, and return with an answer. No time frame, however, was given. The officials said that Suleiman, who has been trying to broker a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip for weeks, did not come with any new proposal.
Olmert and Suleiman met for some 90 minutes in discussions that Olmert’s office characterized as “good.” The first stage of the deal calls for a cessation of IDF action and Hamas terror activity as well as the opening of the Israeli crossings into Gaza. At a later stage, the Rafah crossing is slated to be opened.
Sources in Olmert’s office said that three weeks ago Olmert and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak scheduled a meeting in Sharm e-Sheikh sometime after the World Economic Forum meeting there this weekend.
It is widely expected that when the two do meet, it would be to finalize the agreement.
So far no date has been set.
Olmert’s spokesman Mark Regev, meanwhile, denied that Suleiman’s shuttle between meetings with Israeli officials and that Hamas officials represented an indirect form of negotiations.
“There are no negotiations, with Hamas,” Regev insisted. “Israel and Egypt have a common interest in trying to maintain stability in the south.
Israel cannot continue to tolerate the daily barrage of rockets, so either the attacks will cease or Israel will have to stop them. We don’t have a great desire to escalate in the south, and if it is possible to achieve clam, that is obviously our preference, and the Egyptian’s preference.”
Government sources, meanwhile, said that Israel’s insistence that Schalit be included in the deal – knowing Hamas would not agree – was a way to gracefully get out of an agreement that Israel is not enamored with. According to these sources, Israel is concerned that Hamas would use the cease-fire to build up strength in Gaza, something Israel wants to prevent. According to the sources, conditioning the agreement on the release of Schalit is something the public would back.
Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, meanwhile, also told Suleiman that there would be no arrangements in Gaza as long as Schalit remained in captivity. She also stressed that there could not be calm in the Gaza Strip until the arms smuggling and the Hamas weapons build-up ceased.
Suleiman also met Industry, Trade and Labor Minister Eli Yishai, from Shas, who has said he would be willing to meet with Hamas to secure Schalit’s release.
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