Israel Faces Increasing Pressure to Halt Gaza War.

[elleng]

JERUSALEM — Israel faced new political and economic pressures on Wednesday to negotiate a halt to the 16-day-old Gaza war, with its rising toll of death and destruction, as cease-fire talks ground forward and the Israeli tourism industry was upended as major foreign airlines extended their suspension of flights over fears of Palestinian rocket fire.

Secretary of State John Kerry, whose efforts to broker an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement collapsed this year, conducted a whirlwind tour of diplomacy, holding intensive talks with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel after having met in the occupied West Bank with the Palestinian Authority president, Mahmoud Abbas. But for the moment, the prospects for a cease-fire seemed remote.

“We will continue to push for this cease-fire,” Mr. Kerry said in Ramallah, where Mr. Abbas is based. “We have in the last 24 hours made some progress in moving toward that goal.” But several hours later Mr. Kerry shook hands with a grim-faced Mr. Netanyahu at the headquarters of the Israel Defense Forces in Tel Aviv.

Neither of them took questions before or after a two-hour meeting. Mr. Kerry then flew back to Cairo, where he had spent part of Tuesday in discussions with President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi of Egypt, whose cease-fire proposal had provided the framework for discussions on how to arrange one.

While Mr. Kerry has emphasized that his immediate goal is to obtain a cease-fire, he also has said that he hopes to lay the ground for a “sustainable process going forward” following an end to the fighting. That seemed to be a way to assure the Palestinians in Gaza that the United States was prepared to address some of their long-term economic and political grievances and to acknowledge Mr. Netanyahu’s argument that a way needs to be found to demilitarize Gaza.

But Mr. Kerry’s decision to relegate such issues to a subsequent phase of the negotiations — after a cease-fire is established — also appeared to be an implicit recognition of the difficulties.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/24/world/middleeast/israel-gaza-strip-casualties.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&version=HpSumSmallMedia&module=first-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news

[King_David]

1. Egypt proposed a ceasefire and Israel accepted it,

Hamas rejected it out of hand. The operation would of halted long ago had Hamas ceased fire.

[elleng]

2. and had the blockade been lifted.

[King_David]

3. Why is there a blockade there in the 1st place?

All those tunnels are made of cement . All those rockets are unguided .

Imagine if there was no blockade there would be guided missiles there.

Hamas boasted about attempting to hit the nuclear reactor with a missile .
Imagine if there were no blockade .

Why do you think there is a blockade now when there never was one after the last Jew left Gaza ?

[elleng]

4. 'So did you stop the smuggling with the siege?

Did you really stop? We see now how well equipped Hamas is. This is ridiculous, because any siege can be broken for certain purposes. But the siege breaks the people of Gaza and pushes them again and again to the corner, to the corner of violence and to the corner of desperation.

But I would like also to comment about the prime minister’s remarks, as if Israel has to react. Sure, Israel has to react and has to defend itself, but, Mr. Prime Minister, where did it start? Those rockets fall on our heads just by chance? There is no context to this? There was not the breaking of the political negotiations by the Israelis refusing to release some few veteran prisoners? There was not a war declared on Hamas in the West Bank after the kidnap and the murder of three Israeli youngsters, arresting 500 Hamas activists who were not involved in this kidnap? Didn’t Israel stop the salaries—transferring the salaries to 40,000 Hamas workers, employees in Gaza? And what did Israel think? Wasn’t Israel against the unity government? And what did Israel think, that all this will pass like nothing and Hamas will accept everything? So I have news. Those who believe that nothing will happen were either extremely arrogant or blind or both.'

http://www.democracynow.org/2014/7/22/what_does_hamas_really_want_israeli

[King_David]

5. There was no "seige" after the last Jew left Gaza

The "seige"never occurred in a vacuum .

[shira]

6. No rewarding Hamas for what they're doing. Unconditional Ceasefire.

Those concerned about Palestinian civilian casualties should be BEGGING Hamas to stop.

Unless they really don't care about Palestinians...

[4now]

7. But Israel continues to murder civilians

and commit war crimes.