IDF: Battered Hamas turns to PA, Egypt in bid to renew truce

[drdon326]

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=336058&contrassID=2&subContrassID=1&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y

The Israel Defense Forces believe that if Hamas
could live the last two weeks over again, it would
skip the deadly suicide bombing in Jerusalem that
sparked the current wave of assassinations.

Over the last few days, Hamas
leaders have sent messages to
both the Palestinian Authority
and Egypt in an effort to
revive the cease-fire. The
answers they have received
sound almost like Israel's
demands: First they must agree
to disarm, and then it will be
time to talk about a
cease-fire.


IDF Chief of Staff Moshe Ya'alon, who toured
Gaza yesterday, is relatively optimistic about
recent developments in the territories. He
believes that the steps Israel is taking,
including its assassination campaign against
Hamas, and Hamas mistakes have combined to put
the Palestinians into a humiliating situation.

Each of the three centers of power in the
territories - PA Chairman Yasser Arafat, Prime
Minister Mahmoud Abbas and the Hamas leadership
- is now fighting for political survival (and,
in the case of Hamas leaders, for physical
survival as well).

Journalists have been having trouble finding
senior Hamas officials over the last few days.
Abdel Aziz Rantisi and his colleagues are not
only reluctant to come to television studios in
Gaza, they are even cutting down sharply on
their use of the telephone. But beyond the real
fear for their lives that Hamas members at
every level are feeling (a fear that Israel is
encouraging through repeated declarations by
Ya'alon and Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz about
their intention to continue the assassination
policy), the organization is facing a serious
dilemma. The problem with the Jerusalem attack,
from Hamas's viewpoint, is that it was too
successful. The large number of people killed,
and the large number of children among them,
aroused American and European anger at the
organization (Europe is even considering
declaring its "political" wing a terrorist
organization) and provided a rare moment of
international legitimacy for Israel's forceful
response. The question is, what will happen if
Hamas's retaliation is similarly "successful" -
and if, once again, the gain proves to be not
worth the cost?

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ohhhhh.....so now Hamas is begging for a truce.

hey ...they want kids to be martyrs.....now they can be martyrs.