EXTRA: Hamas spokesman says movement will not agree to ceasefire

[Adsos Letter]

Source: DPA/Earth Times


Dubai - A spokesman for the Palestinian Islamist movement told the Arabic television channel al-Arabiya on Thursday that the organization would not enter a ceasefire agreement with Israel amid intense diplomatic efforts to bring the two sides together. Mohammed Nassal, a member of the Damascus-based Hamas political bureau, told the channel that Hamas would not enter an unlimited ceasefire as Israel has demanded.

"We are ultimately a resistance movement. While Palestinian land is occupied, we have the right to undertake resistance," he said.

A spokesman for the movement in Cairo would not give details on Hamas' response to an Egyptian-sponsored peace initiative late Wednesday night, even as earlier reports said that they had accepted the initiative.

The Damascus-based political bureau is widely seen as being less willing to compromise than Hamas leaders in Gaza.

http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/250670,extra-hamas-spokesman-says-movement-will-not-agree-to-ceasefire.html

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It appears that it is much easier to be stalwart when bombs aren't raining down on you...

[aquart]

1. And the dead children aren't your immediate family.

Leaders who lead from the rear, such a treat.

[High Plains]

2. I don't see Barak and Tzipi leading the charge into Gaza.

[AdHocSolver]

3. Why stop sacrificing Palestinians now when Hamas is winning the propaganda war.

The thousands of rockets smuggled into Gaza that Hamas launched against Israel must have cost tens of millions of dollars. That would have purchased a lot of food and medicine if Hamas had used the money for that purpose instead of missiles.

So far, we have not seen one opinion piece that "encourages" Hamas to stop launching missiles at Israel. The only rhetoric about the fighting is that Hamas has "nothing to lose" by continuing the rocket attacks. So Hamas evidently rightly assumes that they can win the propaganda war buy sacrificing Palestinians to the last man, woman, and child.

This mentality has little changed from the suicide bombings used by the Palestinian leadership in earlier times. The difference is that when the Palestinians killed a lot of Israelis with suicide bombers, the critics of Israel found it less tenable to attack Israel for retaliating.

So the "new" Intifada is using a new strategy of killing fewer Israelis with their attacks to gain more sympathy for their tactics, and it seems to be working. Why stop sacrificing Palestinians in an unwinnable battle when you can place all of the blame on your opponent and have it stick?

[DogPoundPup]

4. about Hamas' willingness to accept the Egyptian proposal.

A government source said Thursday that defense official Amos Gilad had returned from Egypt with a very reassuring report about its willingness to crack down on arms smuggling to Gaza - one of Israel's key demands - and about Hamas' willingness to accept the Egyptian proposal.

((((((((((((However, the source added, Israel still has some reservations.))))))))))))))))))...) as always is the case...no matter what.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1055967.html