Foreign Ministry readies 'diplomatic exit plan' from Gaza

[oberliner]

The Foreign Ministry on Sunday released preliminary options for a "diplomatic exit strategy" from the operation in the Gaza Strip. Political sources in Jerusalem say the options are not similar to those available during the Second Lebanon War, which ended with a UN Security Council resolution and the deployment of peacekeepers.

On Saturday evening Prime Minister Ehud Olmert ordered work to begin on a policy for ending the Gaza operation. The foreign ministry's ideas were discussed at a meeting headed by Olmert political adviser Shalom Turgeman and including representatives of the Foreign Ministry, National Security Council, Defense Ministry, Military Intelligence, Shin Bet security service and Mossad.

This team aims to give daily briefings on political-defense issues and make recommendations to the prime minister, foreign minister and defense minister on ending the operation. It would operate like the team headed by former Olmert chief of staff Yoram Turbowicz during the Second Lebanon War.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1050687.html

[ProgressiveProfessor]

1. Sounds about right, the Arab League is not meeting in Cairo until Wed.

[IndianaGreen]

2. And the Lebanon war was such a success, wasn't it?

This will end up badly for Israel.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

3. They are taking a very different approach and Hamas is not Hezbollah

I am not willing to make any projections at this point. The PA is waiting to regain control. The image of DeGaulle and the Free French marching into Paris comes to mind.

[Capt_Nemo]

4. "The image of DeGaulle and the Free French marching into Paris comes to mind"

Yeah! I can see it now:

Mahmoud Abbas enters the Gaza strip commanding
an IDF collumn of tanks, welcomed by a cheering crowd of gazans throwing
flowers and candy at the convoy.

IDF soldiers struggle to keep away the cheering crowds from their newly
installed dear leader, by firing tear gas and rubber bullets at them, but
to no avail, as they keep chanting "Praise Allah for Abbas, Olmert and Condi Rice!",
"Praise Allah for raining down 1,000 lb. bombs and rubber bullets on us!"

Later, as the convoy arrives in Gaza City, the ecstatic crowds look for a statue of
Ismael Hanyeh to overthrow, but, since there's none, they draw a beard in a spare
effigy of GWB and burn it instead.

And as the climax approaches in this historic day, Mahmoud Abbas steps up to a podium,
under a "MISSION ACCOMPLISHED" banner, and addresses the crowd of hundreds of thousands:
"Fool me once, shame on... fool me... won't get fooled again!"

:sarcasm:

[Alamuti Lotus]

5. The image of Vidkun Quisling standing before a firing squad..

may be more accurate.

[IndianaGreen]

6. Abbas is on America's payroll

and he is as popular with Palestinians as our other lapdog Karzai is with the Afghan people.