News: Cease fire appears to be holding for now

At the moment, the cease-fire is holding but it won't take much for things to get hot again.

Dean Barnett thinks the cease-fire is delaying the inevitable and possibly to the detriment of the Israelis. His breakdown of the situation:

As this struggle rages on, I’m often reminded of historian Paul Johnson’s description of European Jews during Hitler’s ascendancy. For millennia, Jews had been persecuted, but they had always found a way to placate their persecutors and survive. Maybe they had to make tributes or confine themselves to shtetls or undergo conversions, but European Jewry had never faced a truly existential threat until Hitler.

When Hitler came along, collectively the European Jews could not recognize the fact that here was an antagonist who could not be bargained with. He did not want their money or their professed loyalty; he wanted them dead. Period.

It seems the American and Israeli power-structures find themselves in a similar position now. As murderous and cruel as the Soviet Union was, the Soviets operated out of a playbook that we could understand. And as dangerous as Assad, Arafat and Nasser were, their goals were to some extent rational enough that Israel felt she could understand them.

Now we both have an adversary for whom negotiations are a ruse, a hudna geared to giving them time to mount the next attack. They cannot be placated by our land or our wealth, or even our kindest intentions. They want us dead. They are willing to sacrifice themselves to achieve that goal.

There is only one way to deal with such an enemy. It will be neither pretty nor easy.

What do the opponents of Israel want?

If they want Israel destroyed than this cease-fire is only going to serve to allow them to rest, recover and resupply to fight again another day.

We hear that there are Islamic moderates in the Middle East. Do they want a two-state solution? Their voices are awfully quiet?

When the opponents of Israel talk of occupied territory what do they mean?

I suppose if they only mean the West Bank than there is room to negotiate.

If they mean no Jews in Haifa and Tel Aviv then there is no room to negotiate because that means there is no room for one side of the negotiation table.