The UK media is using this to pin the blame for all deaths on Hamas. Some even use the same headline, which is along the lines of "Israel accepts Egypt ceasefire plan". Hamas claims to have not been consulted. But was Israel? It sounds like it was.
Regarding Israel's quick acceptance:
1. this gives Israel the appearance of peacemaker;
2. if Hamas rejects the offer then Israel can blame all subsequent deaths on Hamas.
But does this also show that Israel has been affected by the international public outrage? Politicians have been either silent on or supportive of Israel's murdering action. But all you need to do to assess public outrage is go onto Twitter and type "Gaza" into the search and read the tweets. I would honestly estimate that about 95% of the tweets were demanding that Israel stop the war on Gaza.
And this is where it now gets tricky for Hamas, because although most tweets were against Israel, very few were in support of Hamas, but there was also a lack of tweets condemning Hamas. This suggests that the world public (that has access to Twitter and is politically active) are against Israel's actions on Gaza but neutral on Hamas, possibly sympathetic to the strength of feeling shown by Hamas but possibly not in favour of their indiscriminate rocketing of Israel (which this war has shown is generally ineffective against Iron Dome).
Hamas has to accept the offer.
But at the same time we must pounce on any Israeli action that breaks the ceasefire.
We know Israel cannot be trusted.
In 2008 there was a ceasefire. The plan was that Hamas would stop firing rockets into Israel, and Israel would lift its already illegal blockade of Gaza. The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs website published statistics showing Hamas kept its side of the deal. However, Israel did not lift the blockade. So Hamas smuggled more through tunnels. One day, the day after the 2008 US Presidential election, Israel killed a few Hamas smugglers in a tunnel. Hamas started firing rockets again. And in response Israel executed Operation Cast Lead, killing approximately 1500, and used phosphorous.
That was 2008.
After the ceasefire in late 2012, what happened?
Tthe last time there was a ceasefire, the first three months saw zero rockets but 100+ Israeli attacks. #Gaza #Hamas pic.twitter.com/yOa6uH5dzk
— Ben White (@benabyad) July 15, 2014Hamas is right. Israel cannot be trusted. But Israel has lost the PR war this time. That is why it has so quickly accepted the ceasefire.
I and most of the world don't want to see any more dead children from Gaza. Only a very sick few in Tel Aviv, Washington DC and London do.
Hamas must accept the ceasefire or face losing the PR war from now on. Surely Hamas can see that their rockets are ineffective against Iron Dome, and that Israel cannot invade Gaza because of the massive outrage their cowardly bombing has provoked so far, or continue that cowardly bombing.
But Israel must also be kept on a very tight leash.
If Obama wants his Nobel peace prize back, now is a great opportunity to bring some kind of peace to the Middle East.
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