Rice Pushes for Gaza Cease-Fire That Is ‘Durable and Sustainable’

Does Rice mean that the “durable and sustainable” cease-fire should come after the impending ground invasion? The bombardment of the past week has been on a swath of a heavily populated area 25 miles long and 3 to 7 miles wide, making the incursions comparable to shock and awe and apparently primed enough for a ground assault. The timing has certainly been most peculiar – not only has it been on the eve of Israeli elections, but also in the midst of a presidential transition.

Where is Abbas? He should be preparing to move security and civil service personnel into Gaza when a cease fire is established.

Israel has a right to defend itself and its citizens. Israel did everything in its power to avoid taking any military action. But Hamas keeps on firing Rockets into Israeli cities and shooting at innocent people. These attacks have been going on since 2001! Would any country allow this to go on for such a long time? Hell NO! Would the US accept rockets being fired at San Diego from the Mexican Border? Would Spain allow rockets to fly on its citizens from France? Of course NOT! We are dealing with Terrorists who are holding the poor people of Gaza hostage. The Hamas so cynically uses its own people as human shields. These people have no mercy and should be treated the same way! It is time for to uproot this evil once and for all!

When a reporter shouted a question to Rice about whether she would fly to the Middle East to try to broker a peace deal she said, “I have no plans at this point.” And when pressed in the briefing on the subject of a final Rice trip to the Middle East, Johndroe said, the Secretary has been on the phones constantly for a week “so, we don’t see a particular need for her to travel to the region when she can do her work from here.”
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Translation: Rice is wasting her time. None of the combatants will listen to her.
This is true trying to influence without any authority. The only tool would be credibility. Rice has very little with Israel and none with Hamas.
In the case of Hamas, distasteful as it is, Hamas is a real viable force in this conflict. Bush/Rice made a terrible tragic mistake when they excluded Hamas from the peace negotiations starting with the Anapolis Conference.

As Bill Clinton has said. “This is all a big fairytale.” Obama will have to deal with Israel and Hamas then find that peace with Hamas is a big fairytale. Hamas has a blood oath to destroy Israel and will not stop its effort until Israel is wiped off the map or Hamas is permanently defeated in death and principle. Peace with Hamas and a lasting ceasefire with Hamas is a big fairytale.

Condi is correct, and Hillary will follow her lead! :)

? “..if we had not stole away the region after world war two from its rightful occupants the whole muslim worldwould not hate us.” That is so naive. Their doctrine is world dominance and the west is getting in the way of that. Just see how Europe, Russia, and China are fairing. Anyone up to date on the cultural conflicts brewing with the influx of the Muslim influence? i.e. France, Spain, etc..

As Condoleezza Rice is in the last lap of her term as Secretary of State, the situation in the Middle East merits answering if Ms. Rice ever had a clear-cut plan to further the American interests of stabilising the situation in the region surrounding the volatile Iraq? Or was all this just a part of treadmill diplomacy where you jog at one place without covering any distances at all? Has Secretary Condoleezza Rice been running in a rut as a regular feature of her diplomacy tourism during her periodic trips to the Middle East?
This question become even more pertinent on the heels of the third anniversary since she launched her “transformational diplomacy” on 18 January 2006 declaring:
“America needs equally bold diplomacy, a diplomacy that not only reports about the world as it is, but seeks to change the world itself. I and others have called this mission “transformational diplomacy.” http://www.state.gov/secretary/rm/2006/59306.htm
The above pronouncement begs another question: In seeking to change the whole world, how well did the State Department adapts itself to keep pace with the dynamics of change? In retrospective, was all those dashes to the Middle East a diplomacy tourism road show featuring?

T – At some point the world needs to decide how to reconcile the diversity in ideologies or accept the genocide one inflicts upon the other. So when is enough enough? When all are toothless and blind from a terminal cycle of vengeance or when everyone is willing to listen to a small child begging their elders to give peace a chance? I hear children begging but Hamas has already made its blood oath to wipe Israel off the map and Israel is doing what it can to counter that. Stop the rockets if you truly want peace and reasonable people will find mutually beneficial solutions.

sustainable cease-fire is nothing less than “we’re going to sit back and allow our ally to bomb the hell out of some people that we care nothing about.” i can hardly wait until the incompetent and embarrassing bush and his administration are out of office. he’s the worst ever.

It is too bad the Palestinians are suffering thru this – but they chose to do it this way. Should they give up Hamas – it all goes away. If you have’nt been there it is best you just keep quiet. Hamas is only furthering the cause of Iran, not the Palestinian people. The Hamas leadership, as usual, is in “hiding”. They are really getting good at it. It is really, really, too sad.

Yoel – Israel needs to stop stealing Palestinian lands for settlement construction. If it happened here we would resist with more than rockets.

“The timing has certainly been most peculiar – not only has it been on the eve of Israeli elections, but also in the midst of a presidential transition.”
kat | Jan 2, 2009 11:58:55 AM
Ever in search of conspiracy theories, even though the obvious explanation serves well enough?
Hamas suspended the six month cease fire, and has began firing rockets into Israel – more than 80 rockets landed in Israel on Christmas alone!
The Israeli incursion is a direct response to Hamas firing rockets into Israel – that’s all.
If, as so many have argued here, Hamas has “the right to defend itself”. the same must also apply to Israel.
More’s the pity for innocent Palestinians that they must suffer under political leadership that is willing to sacrifice their safety so that Hamas can exercise its “right” to fire rockets indiscriminately at Israeli civilian targets.
However, the citizens of Gaza DID elect these miserable gangsters to lead them.

NJ – When do they dismantle the 1000+ settlements in the West Bank? When do they stop adding more settlements in the West Bank? Israel left Gaza because it was too costly, not because they are trying to do the right thing.

“as part of the worldwide fight against terror”, Israel can show good faith by returning these men to the US for trial as suspects in the 9/11 attacks:

See ya Rice. Don’t let the door hit you on the way out.

Although Hammas was elected in a public and supposedly free elections, we can see their tolerance for internal opponents (filmed on video: Hammas guys pushed to their death 3 Fatah leaders, from the 11th floor of Gaza buldings).
Not to mention their “martyres” and bombs aimed at innocent israelies (according to hammas – all Israelies, including babies and seniors, are NOT innocent – a horrible concept).
I will raise both hands for Israel and against Hammas.
May god be with you.

Er – Nice fearmongering. They are coming here eh? Actually they resist occupation and rightfully so.

Hamas is guilty of firing rockets at Israel, but the cause of the issue is not being argued. Israel is an occupier of palestinian land and Hamas chose the violent approach to enforce Israel to back down. Take a look at the map and you will be able to see how Israel broke up Gaza from the west bank. Food supplies and the most basic sources of life that go into Gaza are controlled by Israel on a daily basis. Palestinians are living under Israel’s mercy, so would you hold them responsible if they retaliate for their life?
I am not arguing if Hamas is a terrorist group or not, but if it is, does that make Israel a terrorist country by reacting in a more vicious way? Terrorist groups should be eliminated, should Israel be eliminated too?
Israel on the other hand has moved its war to the streets of Gaza killing children and demolishing civilian buildings.
Israel is committing a war crime as we speak, and the world should hold them responsible for the genocide.

Ittai is correct. Israel left Gaza a few years ago and left all its occupation settlements in Gaza. The Palestinians could have stopped the circle of violence there, but instead the Hammas (in a very bloody war on the Fattah) took Gaza and turned it into a rocket launcher deep into Israel.
If someone would have fired rockets on my hometown for 8 years, I promise you I would have expected my government to take action…
The main problem is that Hammas is using the poor population of Gaza as a human shield. They are launching their rockets from heavily populated areas, using their own holly places as storerooms for weapons, ext.

Er
Actually the number of settlements and settlers in the occupied territories has increased. Israel did leave Gaza because it was too costly in lives and money. Israel has a lot to answer for. Keeping Gaza in a constant state of confinement is also an obstacle to peace.

Jacob – Both sides are guilty of crimes. Israel needs to get all settlements out of the West Bank immediately and end all chenckpoints so that the Palestinians no longer are fenced into small blocks in their own land. Israel also needs to stop cutting vital power and food and water from Gaza whenever they feel like it. Hamas needs to change tactics away from violence to more peaceful means of protest. Israel does not give the Palestinians everything they want, hardly. I believe the greater victims are the Palestinians and I am tired of my tax dollars paying for this nonsense.

“Actually the number of settlements and settlers in the occupied territories has increased.”
Posted by: Joe | Jan 6, 2009 10:07:18 AM
Indeed, the number of settlements has increased.
That fact is not relevant to “ER”‘s basic point that Israel has withdrawn from certain settlements AS A FIRST STEP towards final status negotiations. And that in response, rather than answering with an equivalent gesture, Hamas has sends ever more and ever more accurate, and ever more deadly rockets into Israel proper.
Hamas – as the more radical Palestianian leadership always has in the past – responds to an opening for negotiating a two state solution by taking any peaceful gesture made by Israel as a victory, and an opportunity to ramp of the violence in the hopes of achieving even more concessions, and no doubt eventually their real goal – the total destruction of Israel.

I agree 100 per cent with leftyintexas. Rice is an abysmal failure as Secretary of State. A great reflection of the Administration she works for.

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