Today's hopeful news: Palestinian officials say Hamas is on the verge of accepting truce
Oh, wait...
June 18, 2003: Palestinians and Hamas near truce
June 16, 2003: Palestinian FM -Hamas ceasefire possible on Tuesday
June 15, 2003: Egyptian mediators work to reach ceasefire deal with Palestinian militants
June 8, 2003: Hamas Expected to Rejoin Truce Talks
June 3, 2003: Hamas Official Says Truce Possible with Guarantees
June 1, 2003: Palestinians confident on ceasefire deal
May 31, 2003: PNA to meet with Hamas as soon as truce is ready
May 29, 2003: Abu Mazen confident of Hamas ceasefire
May 22, 2003: Following Abu Mazen meeting, Hamas hints at limited truce
August 13, 2002: Hamas may agree to ceasefire
April 28, 2002: Hamas would accept Saudi peace plan, spokesman says; Group would stop attacks on Israelis if occupation ends
December 21, 2001: Hamas declares ceasefire in Israel
October 1999: Hamas offers truce
A list of terror attacks, many of which were organized by Hamas, is here.
Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at June 23, 2003 04:50 PMthat timeline makes for horrid but interesting reading. although netanyahu is mainly insane, in my opinion, during his tenure there was calm, even though the "peace process" barely inched. what did he do or not do right? I would like to see some study that correlated something to the level of palestinian violence. the only correlation i can see is that when israel puts brigade level forces and is operating and not merely static, violence drops as the war is taken to the enemy, in the tradition of the IDF. The pinpoint operations which sharon likes so much are problematic, in that they do not grab the palestinian attention in the way his pinpoint actions in the days of group 101 did - of course, his were not so pinpoint, and occasionally ben gurion had to apologize for civilian casualties.
it seems to me, and again, i aint there, but that all weapons beyond sidearms should be forcibly stripped from the PA - i still remember being in israel when that deal was signed and could not fathom why it was necessary for the PA to have M-16s - although it was a part of the original autonomy deal. after that is done in the space of 2-3 months, i have other ideas.
Posted by: anon on June 23, 2003 05:55 PM Help I'm turning blue holding my breath. Somehow I think this may have something to do with Hamas' tone:
"We are free to fight terror wherever the Palestinians are not doing it," said Gideon Meir, the deputy director general of the Israeli Foreign Ministry. On Saturday night Israeli forces killed Abdullah Qawasmeh, 43, a Hamas leader in the West Bank city of Hebron. Tonight Israeli forces conducted another raid, in the West Bank city of Nablus, in what the army called a search for terrorists.
[Early Tuesday, a spokesman for the Israeli Army said it had arrested more than 100 Palestinians in Nablus in a major sweep against Hamas, Agence France-Presse reported.]
Ther is nothing like whacking a few leadership figures to un-nerve them. Who says that Israel's recent counter-attacks have been counter-productive?
StarBanker