US presses Israel to reach Gaza cease-fire before Bush visit

[bemildred]

Pressure is picking up on Israel to reach a cease-fire deal with Hamas in the Gaza Strip ahead of US President George W. Bush's planned visit to Jerusalem in two weeks, defense officials told The Jerusalem Post on Sunday.

Maj.-Gen. (res.) Amos Gilad, head of the Defense Ministry's Diplomatic-Security Bureau, has been holding intensive talks with Egypt on a proposed cease-fire in the Gaza Strip being brokered by Egyptian Intelligence Minister Omar Suleiman, according to the defense officials.

There was increasing pressure from the US and Egypt to reach a deal before Bush's visit on May 14, the officials said, and Israel was making every effort to move forward with the deal, even though Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Defense Minister Ehud Barak had yet to formulate an official position on the matter.

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1208870506449&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

[Scurrilous]

1. Carter: Israel rejected Hamas truce offer

Ex-US president blames Israel for denying Gazans food, water; says Hamas won elections 'fair and square'

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3537078,00.html

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"Former US President Jimmy Carter says that following his meetings with Hamas leaders the group offered a truce in Gaza but Israel rejected the offer. During an interview with NBC, Carter also blamed Israel for denying the citizens of Gaza basic supplies such as water and food.

"I think it was productive, because all the things that we asked Hamas to do, they basically agreed to do," Carter said, referring to his recent trip. "One was to have a total ceasefire just in Gaza alone, where before they had said it must be Gaza and the West Bank as well. So they preferred to have a ceasefire, and announced it publicly after we left. Israel unfortunately rejected the ceasefire from Hamas.

"There's no way to have peace in the Middle East without bringing the Palestinians back together if Hamas represents at least half of the Palestinian people," Carter added, citing the 2006 elections the United States insisted be held. "Hamas won the election fair and square. They got a majority of seats in the Parliament."

"But then the United States and Israel declared that there wouldn't be a Palestinian united government, so they declared that Hamas was a terrorist organization. They refused to negotiate with them. They refused to give food and water and electricity and other supplies to people under Hamas' leadership in Gaza, and that broke the whole situation down," he said."