The Israeli government has rejected a call for a cease-fire from Ismail Haniyeh, the Hamas PM that has yet to produce the israeli soldier his organization abducted in a border raid that killed two other IDF troops. Israel insists that no negotiations for cessation of its Gaza incursion can begin until Hamas returns Gilad Shalit:

The Hamas-led Palestinian government called for a cease-fire in its violent two-week standoff with Israel but stopped short Saturday of offering to release an Israeli soldier held by Hamas militants. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert rejected the proposal by Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh. Olmert will not agree to a truce until Hamas releases the soldier, officials in Olmert's office said. ...

Israel's two-week military campaign, prompted by the abduction of Cpl. Gilad Shalit has put the Hamas government under growing pressure. Israel has arrested several Palestinian Cabinet ministers and Hamas lawmakers.

On Saturday, Haniyeh issued a five-point cease-fire proposal, calling on Israel to halt its offensive and release prisoners but saying little about what Hamas is prepared to do in return.

"If we want to get out of the current crisis, it is necessary to return to calm, on the basis of a mutual halt to all military operations," said a statement issued by Cabinet spokesman Ghazi Hamad in Haniyeh's name.

If Haniyeh and the Palestinians thought that Israel would bite on an offer that thin, they must be daft. Israel has no intention of pulling out of Gaza without Shalit, or failing that, with the heads of as many terrorists as they can kill. For years, the Palestinians have made these abductions and prisoner swaps very expensive for Israel; now Israel has finally shaken off Western leaders, especially in Europe, and are determined to make them very expensive for the Palestinians from this point forward.

The Palestinians committed an act of war by raiding the border and capturing Shalit. Now they want to call off the war and get prisoners back, all without giving up anything in return. Capitulating to that demand with a truce only guarantees that Hamas will return to the same strategy again and again. In fact, the Palestinians have done just that for decades, aided and abetted by a benighted West that only appeared interested in a perverted status quo, where one side commits terrorism and the other side is barred from responding.

Finally, five years after 9/11, two years after Madrid, and almost on the anniversary of the London attack, the West has finally figured out that appeasing terrorists only gains more terrorism. Europe and the US has refrained from their normal demands that Israel stop shooting at the people who have sworn to kill them and who have conducted unceasing missile attacks ever since the withdrawal from Gaza. Everyone now understands the stakes involved in facing down Hamas, as well as all of the other affiliated Islamofascist terrorist groups in the region.

Hudnas will no longer suffice. If Hamas wants to see an end to the fighting, then they had better start living up to the agreements made previously with the Palestinian Authority and end all attacks on Israel and its citizens. Otherwise, they will have the war they wanted, and when they get their ass kicked, no one will lift a finger to stop it.

That's the lesson we need to teach Hamas and the Palestinians. If they want peace, then stop provoking war. The world has tired of sympathizing with bloodthirsty terrorists.

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» Israel Rejects Hamas Truce from PartisanTimes.com
The Israeli government, led by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, has rejected a truce offered by Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh. Under PM Haniyeh's plan, Israel would end its Gaza offensive and free Palestinian prisoners in exchange for NOTHING. T... [Read More]

Tracked on July 8, 2006 2:46 PM