In case you missed it, this afternoon Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert announced that Israel was unilaterally halting its operation in the Gaza Strip; and that it would stay stopped so long as Hamas stopped firing rockets into Israel and did not attack the Israeli troops who would remain behind in Gaza. Since Hamas said that if even one Israeli soldier remained in Gaza the ‘resistance’ would continue and that moments before Olmert spoke Hamas fired another rocket into southern Israel, you can see why I don't have a lot of hope for this cease-fire.
Olmert said that he was halting the operation because Israel had achieved its goals. If Israel's goal was to basically destroy their image and credibility around the world (save for Washington DC), then to quote our soon to be former President, “Mission Accomplished.” As far as weakening Hamas and making Israel secure though, Olmert is sadly mistaken.
The Hamas rocket attacks never stopped during the Gaza campaign; they fell every day, often by the dozens. And while a many Hamas fighters were killed (along with many more civilians, even by Israel's calculations), just having members left alive at the end of a conflict with a vastly superior force is victory in itself - a lesson Israel should have learned after its disastrous campaign in Lebanon in 2006 against Hezbollah, who came out as the ‘victor’ in that conflict merely by surviving.
Meanwhile the UN Relief Works Agency (UNRWA) is calling for an international panel to investigate Israel for war crimes after yet another UN site was hit by the Israeli military overnight. Turkey has called for Israel's membership in the UN to be suspended and Venezuela and Bolivia have both kicked the Israeli ambassadors out of their countries. All definite signs that Israel lost the PR portion of the war, badly.
Prospects for a lasting cease-fire look dim, at least with the current set of negotiations. Egypt has been hosting talks with Israel and the Palestinian Authority (which controls the West Bank part of Palestine), but hasn't included Hamas (Egypt has talked with them separately). And an agreement to open border crossings between Gaza and Egypt would put them under Israeli-Palestinian Authority control, another condition the Hamas government of Gaza won't agree to.
Hopefully the people in Gaza will enjoy the calm for now, I fear it won't last.
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