Quiet US Support for Egypt's Gaza Effort

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BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) — To defuse the threat from Gaza militants to Israel and President Bush's Mideast peace program, the U.S. has decided that the ends justify the means.

Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, is considered a terrorist group by Washington. U.S. law forbids official contacts. Nonetheless, the Bush administration is giving quiet support for Egypt's attempt to broker a deal with Hamas for a truce in Gaza.

Under this approach, which U.S. officials and Mideast diplomats confirmed, Hamas would halt rocket attacks from Gaza. Israel would agree not to launch the kind of military incursions that nearly wrecked the U.S.-sponsored peace talks last weekend and would ease its blockade of Gaza.

"It's better to have a stable situation right now than to have Hamas doing what Hamas was doing, which was pulling the thread," a senior U.S. official said Thursday.

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5i93Vy6rvfQhZNh-wo5mm4BwlgLewD8V87VN80

[Vegasaurus]

1. Meanwhile, Egypt is erecting a ten foot concrete wall on the Gaza border

because they obviously don't want anything to do with these problems either.

Where's the outrage about this wall?

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2. Nice hijack. nt

[Vegasaurus]

3. Sorry. nt

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4. It's all right.

I don't think the wall matters much. I don't even think Hamas minds the wall, as long as they can move stuff in and out. I don't think the Palestinians, in general, mind even the "Peace Wall" that much, had it been built in the right location. It's not the wall so much as where it was built that pisses people off. Believe it or not, most people understand Israel's need and desire to try to protect itself. It's only human.

On the other hand, if the US were actually to push for negotiations, even under that table, for a deal between Hamas and Israel, that's a big deal, and might even offer some chances to improve the situation.

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5. Defense chiefs warm to idea of multinational force in Gaza

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The deployment of a multinational force in Gaza is part of the defense establishment's "exit plan" after a big operation. The idea was raised in unofficial talks with leaders of Arab and Muslim countries, some of whom viewed the issue favorably. Israeli officials believe that the participation of Arab states in a multinational force would help to legitimize it in the eyes of the Palestinian public.

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IDF sources suspect that after the breach in the Egyptian border at Rafah in January, Hamas received missiles such as the Kornet and Concourse, which Hezbollah successfully operated in the last war in Lebanon.

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The frequent changes in Israel's moves in the Gaza Strip this week raised tensions in the cabinet and between the government and IDF. Chief of Staff Gabi Asheknazi decided to take Givati Brigade troops out of the northern Gaza Strip on Sunday night, deciding that the operation had achieved all it could.

This led to a curt exchange between Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, who protested the discrepancy between the decision to continue the operation on Sunday and ending it that night.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/961759.html

[ProgressiveMuslim]

6. Can you imagine if the US had allowed events to unfold naturally 2 years ago?

We will never, ever learn.

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7. That's not what they care about. They do not want to learn.

They want obedience. They want power. This is all just fine as long as they get what they want. They do not care. Any fair acquaintance with the history of the Vietnam intervention, or the colonial project in the Philippines, to name just two, will make the situation clear. They are thinking about making a deal with Hamas because Hamas has succeeded in thwarting their plans. It has nothing to do with any concerns about human suffering. They have no intention of keeping any bargains they make for a minute longer then expediency requires.

[hifalutin]

8. I am beginning to wonder

if anyone cares about human suffering any more.
The world seems to be going to hell in a handbasket.

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9. Well, the US government doesn't. I don't know about "anybody".

I don't think the Israeli government or Hamas does either. As one of the pieces I saw today said, Hamas would see every Palestinian dead before they would surrender. The Israeli government would most likely do the same if the shoe was on the other foot, the "Samson option". That is the fundamental flaw in the Israeli "strategy" of pressuring Palestinians to reject Hamas, it won't work, it will never work, it's based on a false premise. You don't spread reason by violence. I think that it is likely that economic and environmental issues will make the whole dispute irrelevant long before any of this killing would lead to "peace".

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10. Cairo Gaza talks make no progress

A Hamas delegation has returned to Gaza after talks with Egyptian mediators about a possible truce with Israel.

A Hamas official, Ahmed Youssef, said on Thursday his group could not consider a ceasefire while Palestinians were being attacked on a daily basis.

Egypt had hoped to broker an agreement under which Palestinian militants halted rocket attacks on Israel.

The US had sent top state department official David Welch to Cairo to support the Egyptian mediation.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7283361.stm