What else is new, right?
"Israeli infrastructure minister open to a truce with Hamas; He says he would consider cease-fire with conditions" by Laurie Copans, Associated Press | December 22, 2007
JERUSALEM - Israel's infrastructure minister said yesterday that he favored a conditional cease-fire with Hamas, becoming the highest-ranking Israeli official to welcome the militant group's proposal.
Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, a former defense minister, said Prime Minister Ehud Olmert may consider discussing a long-term cease-fire with Hamas if the group stops smuggling arms into the Gaza Strip and negotiates the release of an Israeli soldier captured by Hamas-affiliated militants last year.
Ben-Eliezer told Israel Radio: "The prime minister I know doesn't totally rule anything out. If a serious, realistic proposal is put on the table and Hamas is willing to discuss a long-term cease-fire and is willing to stop the terror, to stop the smuggling, and is willing to open talks on the release of Gilad Shalit, I would go to negotiations."
Yeah, if, if, if, if. We know where this is all going.
Israel's official position is that it will not talk with Hamas unless the group renounces violence, recognizes Israel's right to exist, and accepts previous peace agreements. Olmert's office reiterated that stance yesterday.
Deputy Prime Minister Shaul Mofaz:
"We will not have any negotiations with terrorist organizations."
So Israel doesn't talk to itself, huh?
But the willingness of a senior minister to openly discuss the possibility of a truce proposed by Hamas may indicate that the government is seriously weighing the idea. Israeli defense officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the topic, said yesterday, without providing details, that the government was examining the Hamas offer.
Hamas official Salah Bardawil: "All the Palestinians are in a crisis, not Hamas. We are not lovers of war. We love our rights. If we can get them through a truce, that would be an achievement."
Late Thursday, Hamas said it had fired three rockets at Israel, its first such claim in weeks. The rocket fire is usually conducted by the smaller Islamic Jihad and the Popular Resistance Committees militant groups."
Translation: Hamas DOES NOT fire rockets!
But you would never know that if you read AmeriKa's War Dailies regularly, like I do.
"Israel: Army Denies Role in Hamas Death" by STEVEN ERLANGER
A 17-year-old Hamas fighter was shot to death in Gaza near the border with Israel, but the Israeli Army denied that it had anything to do with it. Hamas said the fighter, identified as Awad al-Foujom, died in a gun battle with Israeli forces. Nearly 20 Palestinian fighters have been killed this week, most of them from Islamic Jihad. Near Nablus, in the occupied West Bank, a Palestinian was stopped at the Hawara checkpoint trying to smuggle a mortar shell; the previous day, another Palestinian tried to stab an Israeli soldier there, the army said."
I don't believe a word Israel says anymore!
So they MURDERED a TEEN-AGER, huh?
