re: #178 Rev_Arthur_Belling

I read somewhere that Hamas had said no.

The latest shelling perhaps. Long-term prospects are still grim.

Hamas is refusing to accept the Egyptian proposal for the ceasefire. Israel unilaterally accepted, but said that if they take fire, they will resume retaliatory strikes against Hamas in Gaza.

The ceasefire proposal is essentially the same as every other ceasefire brokered between Israel and Hamas since the 1990s. Both sides would refrain from attacking the other, and other issues would be addressed at a later date. That means that all the other issues, whether it is opening up border crossings, allowing materials to enter or leave Gaza, etc. all get pushed.

Egypt (or any other country for that matter) could keep a stock ceasefire agreement on hand, since they’re all essentially the same. That Hamas refuses to accept the ceasefire should signal to everyone that they are the ones who are hoping for casualties. They’re the ones who want to inflict damage (on Israel mostly, but also don’t care that Gazans get hit when Israel responds to Hamas attacks).

Some of that has to do with Hamas needing to show that they’re resilient against Israeli airstrikes - to prop up their prestige against even more extreme groups that see even ceasefires as a cop-out in the struggle to defeat Israel.

But the whole situation reminds me of the scene in Dune where Paul is teaching the Fremen the weirding way - they’ve got a monolith of stone that is extremely hard. The Fremen yell at it. Kicks it. Tries to cut it.

They do no damage.

They’re hoping that they can find the one thing that can destroy Israel, and they are now even more impotent than ever, especially since Iron Dome is picking up potential threats. In fact, Israel is set to deploy additional systems, meaning even more of Israel will be protected by the systems.

So, what does that leave Hamas to do? Kick and scream. Abbas can look askance with smug satisfaction that it isn’t his faction Fatah that is getting hit. He stands to benefit from Hamas losing a round (though it will inevitably run in Palestinian media that Hamas won by holding out as long as they did).