Gaza Ceasefire Deal Reached

And will this ceasefire end any differently than all the other ceasefires? Palestinians still hold Gilad Shalit (who Meshaal says sends his love to his family), and they're still working on expanding their arms caches. Israel has agreed to stop their operations in Gaza, while the Palestinian terrorists have agreed that they'll stop firing their rockets for now - effective Sunday morning local time.

Abbas telephoned Olmert late Saturday to tell him he had arrived at an agreement with all Palestinian factions to stop firing rockets into Israel from the coastal strip, Olmert spokeswoman Miri Eisin said.

She said Abbas asked that Israel reciprocate by stopping all military operations in Gaza and withdrawing its forces, and Olmert agreed.

An Abbas spokesman said later in Gaza City that Palestinian armed factions had agreed to stop their military activity in Gaza on Sunday morning and reinstate a truce reached in Egypt in February 2005. Olmert has agreed, in turn, to halt Israeli military operations in the coastal strip, Nabil Abu Rdeneh said.

This, like the deal brokered by the UN to stop the fighting between Israel and Hizbullah is a mirage. The Islamic terror groups continue to regroup and rearm while Israel cannot act in furtherance of its own national security because Israel would look like the aggressor.

And will all this actually stop the rocket attacks? Abbas may have succeeded in creating cover for more terror operations against Israel by plausible deniability. Rocket attacks conducted now will not be associated with the big three terror groups, and therefore beyond their control. Israel will continue to be hit by rockets at the whim of the terror groups.

Yet, the diplomats will be able to declare peace in their time. Abbas, for his part, gets bonus points since he's managed to outflank Hizbullah. That buys him time and power in bargaining over a new government. The ceasefire is designed to put pressure on Israel to stop its operations to root out the terrorist groups, and to track down the whereabouts of Shalit.

Technorati: terrorism, nasrallah, fatah, Gilad, Shalit, Olmert, Eliyahu, Asheri, Ashri, Abbas, Regev, Goldwasser, PRC, Hamas, Gaza, palestinian, Israel, hizbullah, hezbullah, hezbollah, lebanon, syria.