Truce = Time to Rearm

History doesn't repeat itself but it does rhyme:

The terrorist organization Hamas is claiming that they'll agree to a "truce" if Israel releases thousands of Palestinian prisoners.

I wonder if the US would ever agree to a truce with Al Qaeda. Israeli politicians should be hawks instead of ostriches. They should push for the complete destruction of Hamas.

On the same topic, the point made by Francis Porretto is correct.

Comments

[Hrm]

They didn't say they "would agree to a truce" if Israel helpfully doubles their active-duty list. They said that in return for all these concrete concessions they'd think about maybe agreeing to a temporary truce (maybe), or maybe they'd think about maybe discussing a temporary truce, or some such thing. Oh, and as usual there was no strong implication that the truce, if established, would apply to anybody but Hamas members acting oficially as Hamas members. If they happened to do a little free-lance mass murder on the side, well, hey -- do you really think Hamas wouldn't revert to the same "implausible deniability" nonsense we used to hear from Arafat when people on his payroll ran amok? The "truce" would be utterly meaningless even before Hamas officially abrogated it.

You seriously understate the surreal, demented arrogance of the "offer". They clearly were promising precisely nothing concrete. I'm about half convinced that the "offer" was deliberately designed to be unacceptable to Israel, so Hamas will get credit for a "peace overture" without having to do anything. Then again, it may be a case of Al Sahhaf Syndrome. Hamas's leadership may actually believe they've won.