Maybe a step forward. Maybe not. What do you think? The entire story is at the site.

Hamas says it's reached cease-fire with Israel By IBRAHIM BARZAK, Associated Press Writer
1 hour, 53 minutes ago

Hamas says it's reached cease-fire with Israel - Yahoo! News

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - Gaza's Hamas rulers on Tuesday said they have reached a long-awaited cease-fire with Israel meant to end months of Palestinian assaults on Israeli border towns and bruising Israeli retaliation.

The announcement came shortly after Egypt, which has been trying to broker the truce for months, said the cease-fire would go into effect on Thursday. Israel refused to confirm a deal, but said a "new reality" would take hold if Palestinian attacks end.

In a last-minute jolt, Israeli aircraft attacked three targets in the southern Gaza Strip. One of the airstrikes destroyed a car, killing six militants inside.

A large crowd gathered around the car's smoldering remains, and a puddle of blood was visible on the asphalt. Gaza militants then fired four mortar shells at Israel, the first of the day, the military said. No one was hurt.

Hamas officials accused Israel of trying to undermine the truce, but said they would not let the violence derail the Egyptian efforts.

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Yea can't keep the words of your great leader.

Prophet Muhammad - “Do you love your creator? Love your fellow-beings first.”

We'll see how long it is before Palestinians start shooting missiles into Israel.

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A panda walks into a cafe. He orders a sandwich, eats it, then draws a gun and fires two shots in the air.

"Why?" asks the confused waiter, as the panda makes toward the exit. The panda produces a badly punctuated wildlife manual and tosses it over his shoulder.

"I'm a panda," he says at the door. "Look it up."

The waiter turns to the relevant entry and, sure enough, finds an explanation.

"Panda. Large black-and-white bear-like mammal, native to China. Eats, shoots and leaves."

Two for Maybe. I can only agree with your assessment Chan. As history does repeat itself.

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Yea can't keep the words of your great leader.

Prophet Muhammad - “Do you love your creator? Love your fellow-beings first.”

Or an Israeli plane "accidentally" flies over the Gaza strip faster than sound, or an Israeli bulldozer "accidentally" mows down a Palestinian house. Or a fringe Palestinian group will fire into Israel, they will decide that all of the Gaza strip should be collectively punished and it all starts up.

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Trust me, I'm a socialist!

There's power in a factory,power in the land, power in the hand of the worker. But it all amounts to nothing if together we don't stand, there is power in a union.
The union forever defending our rights, down with the blackleg, workers unite. To our brothers and our sisters in many far off lands, there is power in a union.
Money speaks for money, the devil for his own. - Billy Bragg

It's the most hopeful bit of progress I've seen in a while. Easy to be cynical - particularly with the cycles of violence we've all seen. But....maybe.....

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Happiness is always a by-product. It is probably a matter of temperament, and for anything I know it may be glandular. But it is not something that can be demanded from life, and if you are not happy you had better stop worrying about it and see what treasures you can pluck from your own brand of unhappiness.
- Robertson Davies

It's a good bit of news, but the Israelis will have to resist the urge to attack the Palestinians with tanks and helicopter gunships. The siege on Gaza needs to also be lifted.
They need fuel, food, water, medicines, and freedom of movement amongst other things.
Palestinian fisherman are not even allowed into international waters to get at the best fish stocks.

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"Well done Dubya. You freakin' imbecile." - ViolaLee

Attacks they would never have made if Palestinians hadn't FIRST fired missiles into Israeli civilian populations.

When Hamas gets its population under control and stops the attacks on Israeli civilians, then you can talk about lifting the siege.


Part of their border is with Egypt: let them negotiate with Egypt for these things. But, no, they have no right to access to a foreign country (Israel), especially not one in which Palestinians have a long history of committing terrorist acts. Admit it: what you want is for Israel to let the Palestinians into Israel so that the Palestinians can blow up buses and public places.


Allowing them into international waters gives them access to other parts of Israel and access to weapons suppliers in Lebanon and Syria.

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A panda walks into a cafe. He orders a sandwich, eats it, then draws a gun and fires two shots in the air.

"Why?" asks the confused waiter, as the panda makes toward the exit. The panda produces a badly punctuated wildlife manual and tosses it over his shoulder.

"I'm a panda," he says at the door. "Look it up."

The waiter turns to the relevant entry and, sure enough, finds an explanation.

"Panda. Large black-and-white bear-like mammal, native to China. Eats, shoots and leaves."

No harm done.

Israel doesn't accidentally mow down houses, it intentionally mows down the houses of terrorists and their supporters.

Yes, the entire Gaza population should be punished because the entire Gaza population is giving aid and comfort to those who are firing into Israel - and they voted for a terrorist organization (Hamas) to run their government.

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A panda walks into a cafe. He orders a sandwich, eats it, then draws a gun and fires two shots in the air.

"Why?" asks the confused waiter, as the panda makes toward the exit. The panda produces a badly punctuated wildlife manual and tosses it over his shoulder.

"I'm a panda," he says at the door. "Look it up."

The waiter turns to the relevant entry and, sure enough, finds an explanation.

"Panda. Large black-and-white bear-like mammal, native to China. Eats, shoots and leaves."

Hardly, there can be serious effects on health and regardless why should Israeli fighter jets be allowed in Palestinian territory but aid for palestine not be allowed through Israel?

Hence the quotation marks on accidentally, it's still essentially an act of war to go into another country and mow down houses you suspect hold terrorists.

Evidence for your assertion that "the entire Gaza population is giving aid and comfort to those who are firing into Israel" please. The Hamas government are not terrorists, they defend their land, true, but no longer fire on civilian targets only on Israeli military personel that enter the Gaza strip. But please don't mistake me for a supporter of Hamas, I am definitely not.

__________________
Trust me, I'm a socialist!

There's power in a factory,power in the land, power in the hand of the worker. But it all amounts to nothing if together we don't stand, there is power in a union.
The union forever defending our rights, down with the blackleg, workers unite. To our brothers and our sisters in many far off lands, there is power in a union.
Money speaks for money, the devil for his own. - Billy Bragg

I believe that his point was that by electing Hamas to run the government (a terror organization), the populace gave aid and comfort to Hamas as a result.