The Gaza bombing continues and it doesn't seem that there will be a quick end. The Israelis rejected a truce proposal and Hamas has proven itself to be able to shoot missiles further into Israel than anyone has seen up to now. And the carnage continues...
Nonetheless, in contradiction to yesterday's post, it seems that there have been efforts to bring Hamas and Israel to the table. Europe and the U.S. have been involved in negotiations and put forth the offer to the two parties. Despite President Sarkozy's ambiguous reputation in Europe, he should be commended for taking the risk of encouraging an end to the violence.
What are the sticking points? First, Hamas insists on an immediate and total withdrawal of Israeli defense forces. Second, Israel refuses to back away while Hamas still has the potential for continued missile-launching and -collecting capabilities.
It seems the pressure is mounting for Israel to find some way of bringing a relatively quick end to the fighting. There are both external and internal forces at work, with a long, drawn out war. Or else, as I mentioned yesterday, the public and international fallout could be damaging again.
You would think that parties at war would one day come to their senses and realize that they could cut their losses and sit down at the negotiating table quickly. There has to come a point when they end up there anyhow...
Of course, Obama would also greatly benefit from a quick truce. With all he's go to think about, an end to the Gaza violence would be like Christmas all over again for him.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
(If you wish to comment, please click the tiny word "comments" just below here and a comment box will appear.)
No comments:
Post a Comment
Click in the box to begin.