My, but that word gets thrown around lightly in Gaza these days. It seems that every day a new "truce" is proposed and then the betting starts as to how many hours it will last and how violently it'll end. Most of these "truces" involve only Hamas and Fatah and their various appendages, look-alikes and wannabes (a/k/a "the factions"), but the one proposed by Egypt yesterday also involved Israel.
Uh oh.
Fatah and Hamas representatives are scheduled to meet in Cairo under Egyptian auspices on Saturday to discuss announcing a new truce with Israel and defusing tensions between the two parties.
Palestinian Authority officials in Ramallah told The Jerusalem Post the Egyptians had been exerting heavy pressure on the factions to stop firing rockets from the Gaza Strip.
[ ... ]
Another PA official said the head of Egypt's General Intelligence Service, Omar Suleiman, had proposed a plan that called for a one-month halt of rocket attacks as a first step toward a comprehensive cease-fire that would include the West Bank.
According to the plan, the Palestinians would halt rocket attacks for one month, after which Egypt would try to persuade Israel to stop its crackdown on Palestinian armed groups and Hamas figures in the West Bank.
One thing should be apparent by now. In the Middle East, a "truce" is always a signal that the side on the attack is low on weapons, manpower or morale, usually all three. They need a time out to rally the troops, smuggle in new supplies and recruit some more martyrs. Thanks to the ongoing support of countries like The Netherlands, "the factions" can afford to do this, albeit somewhat surreptitiously. In the meantime, they can also count on Israel's strongest ally to pressure the Jewish state into compromising her security one more time in the name of "peace."
Is it any wonder that I prefer mulching my garden to trying to make sense of this cr@p?
Here. This is Mexican Heather, a/k/a Lavender Lace, a/k/a Cuphea Allyson, a/k/a Cuphea hyssopifolia, a/k/a Cuphea rosea, which is an annual here in Zone 6, but which I hunt down every year because it's very pretty and attacts butterflies.
Shabbat Shalom.
