Hamas offers Israel a one-year truce in Gaza

[DogPoundPup]

Ayman Taha, a Hamas official, said in Cairo that his delegation was briefed by the Egyptians on an Israeli proposal for an 18-month truce with only a partial opening of the border, which they rejected.

Instead, Mr Taha said the group made a counter offer of a year with open borders, which they now must discuss with their leadership in Damascus.

"We will study the matter again and it will be brought back to the Egyptians," he said.

Gaza's borders are its lifeblood as it is dependent on the outside world for almost all of its services.

The current ceasefire was supposed to last for a week and technically expired at the weekend. But it is expected to last for at least as long as the talks continue.

The flurry of diplomatic activity came as President Barack Obama's Middle East envoy, George Mitchell, was preparing to leave for the region, where he is due to arrive on Wednesday.

The veteran negotiator, who was instrumental in bringing about the Good Friday Agreement in Northern Ireland, will be forced to confront spreading suspicions in Israel that fresh efforts to begin talks with Hamas are under consideration.

more ... http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/israel/4339797/Hamas-offers-Israel-a-one-year-truce-in-Gaza.html

[dark forest]

1. I'm not particularly

knowledgeable on the subject. Why doesn't Egypt just open its borders? Why the big deal with tunnels. Aren't the Egyptioans Arab brothers to the Palestinians> Why don't they do an "end run" around the Israelis?

[Duckhunter935]

3. Egypt has an agreement with Israel

But I think they could and have every right and obligation to open the borders to allow humanitarian aid in and Palistinians out if they elect to leave. But they do not want the Palistinians and have fired on them before when they tried to open the common border.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

4. Because they are smart and do not want anything to do with Hamas

Arab brotherhood is a bad lie. Egypt screwed the Palestinians when they ruled Gaza.

[Hippo_Tron]

7. Because Egypt like the rest of the Muslim world doesn't give a shit about the Palestinians

Gaza is merely a staging ground for Israel and the United States fight a proxy war with the Muslim world because neither side wants any more full scale wars. In the process the Palestinians get screwed.

[Duckhunter935]

2. I agree with open borders, but first

Hamas needs to publically state that they will not import weapons (they have not) and stop smuggling tunnels and both sides should a agree to a neutral party to observe crossings.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

5. What kind of ceasefire. As some here were surprised to learn there are different kinds in the ME

not the one size fits all western kind. Pelsar really exposed some colonial progressives with that.

[azurnoir]

8. Yeah especially the ones who have been going on about

the fact that rockets were still being fired during the "time of less shooting" or tahidya and oh yeah the ones at cnn, reuters, ha'aretz. ynet, jpost, nyt.........

[GoesTo11]

6. The sticking point is the open borders

If Hamas would stop bringing in weapons, they could have all the food and supplies they want. As long as they could commit to not using the open borders against Israel, Israel would probably agree to it. How about the following agreement: 12 months of open borders, but if a single Hamas missle ever hits Tel Aviv or Dimona, then Israel goes back in and on to stage 3.