Hamas will continue to cease all rocket attacks, and Egypt and Israel will open border crossings but dis-arming Hamas is not in the cards for now, according to various reports that Hamas has agreed to a partial truce, mostly on its terms. The Israeli Cabinet is discussing the proposal at this moment.
The official word from the Office of the Prime Minister is “no comment.”
Israel has contended that Hamas must be cleansed of its weapons, but the reported truce agreement simply puts the issue off for negotiations at some later date.
Various sources have reported that the Israeli negotiators initialed the proposal, leaving the Cabinet with little choice but to give rubber stamp approval.
With less than two hours to go before the current five-day extension of a temporary cease-fire ends, Hamas has held up its end of the bargain not to attack Israel even with one mortar shell or rocket.
Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas turns out to be the winner if the truce takes effect because his forces would be deployed in Gaza. Hamas also is a winner.
Abbas’s Fatah movement and the rival Hamas terrorist organization are bitter friends, but their unity government is a vehicle for Hamas to remain active in Gaza, in one form or another. The chances of Hamas allowing Fatah to replace its terrorist army and dismantling rockets are zero.
Hamas may have agreed to allow Abbas to return to Gaza, after having been thrown out in a bloody terror war more than eight years ago, because of the threat that European, American or United Nations officials would police the border and make it less likely than Hamas could hold on to its weapons and produce more while the world thinks it is clamoring for peace.
The truce, if approved, gives Hamas a new lease on life after having been abandoned by almost the entire world outside of Iran, Turkey and Qatar.
The Al-Quds newspaper reported that the proposal has 11 points, the most important of which for Hamas is the re-opening of border crossings from Israel and Egypt.
Israel also reportedly has agreed to shrink the buffer zone along the Gaza-Israeli border from 300 to 100 meters by November, after which Abbas’ forces would patrol the area.
If it works for a few weeks or even a few days, Abbas then can claim that the same mechanism will work in a future Palestinian Authority state and that his forces can protect Israel from terror. Then, John Kerry steps up to the mound and starts pitching his “peace process” again.
In case anyone has not noticed, Israeli security forces on Monday arrested smashed a huge Hamas terrorist network in Judea and Samaria and eastern Jerusalem. Dozens of terror cells planned large-scale attacks on Israel, including the Temple Mount, and planned to stage a coup to oust Abbas, whose forces soon are supposed protect Israel from Hamas in Gaza,
One of the biggest losers in the truce, if it is implemented, will be Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, whose Likud party is going to be frothing at the mouth over the agreement.
It remains to be seen if there will be even a bigger loser in the future – the Israeli people.