To bring you up to date:
Over the objections of Avigdor Lieberman and Naftali Bennett, Israel’s security cabinet approved an Egyptian ceasefire proposal to end the current phase of the war with Hamas in Gaza.
Even though Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas welcomed the Egyptian proposal, Hamas rejected it.
Senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri said the Palestinian group rejected the proposal.
Abu Zuhri told The Associated Press that “this proposal is not acceptable.”
Hamas’s armed wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, rejected the offer as “surrender,” pledging to “intensify” its attacks on Israel.
When Hamas continued to fire rockets into Israel after the ceasefire deadline, Israel resumed strikes on Hamas in Gaza.
In other words: Israel agreed to a proposal to stop the war and held its fire for six hours. Hamas has chosen instead to continue the war.
So do you think that the Stop the War Coalition– whose name would suggest to the very naive that it is devoted to stopping wars– will shift the focus of its big London demonstration on Saturday to calling on Hamas to, you know, stop the war?
Me neither. But I can’t wait to see how they spin it.
Update: “We are leading our people to death. I mean…”
(Hat tip: Lynne T)
Further update:
Pro-Hamas blog gets the story that the @guardian missed: Hamas, not Israel, rejected the ceasefire. http://t.co/1AED3dqxb5
— Adam Holland (@ad_holland) July 15, 2014
