In Human Events today, I explain why not:
“We in Europe want a ceasefire as quickly as possible, and…everyone understands that time is running against peace. The guns must fall silent.” So said French President Nicholas Sarkozy after meeting with the President of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas. Later, a delegation from the European Union met with Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni to ask Israel to cease operations in Gaza immediately. Karel Schwarzenberg, the foreign minister of the Czech Republic, which currently has leadership of the EU, declared that Israel should not wait for victory: “We are not sharing the view that the cease-fire is only possible if all possible aims of the Israeli action are achieved.”Israel’s chief aim is to stop the rocket attacks into southern Israel from Gaza and prevent them from recurring. Islamic jihadists have fired 5000 rockets into Israel in the last three years, making no effort whatsoever to distinguish between civilian and military targets. Israeli civilians in southern Israel have grown accustomed to the daily possibility of death from the sky. Sarkozy and the EU expect the Israelis to stop short of achieving their simple goal of ending this threat because they are placing their hope on a negotiated settlement between Hamas and Israel -- one that they would perhaps broker.
But what state has ever successfully reached a negotiated settlement with a jihadist enemy who avows a religious obligation to destroy it? And why is Israel constantly expected to be the first? Sarkozy, Schwarzenberg, and all those who are calling for an immediate ceasefire and negotiations seem to have forgotten (if they ever knew in the first place) what Hamas is, what its goals are, and who forms its leadership.Many analysts continue to view Hamas (which name is an Arabic acronym for the “Islamic Resistance Movement”) as a nationalist group that will ultimately be pacified once a Palestinian state is set up. And to be sure, the Hamas Charter of August 1988 addresses nationalism, but not quite in those terms. It declares: “nothing is loftier or deeper in nationalism than waging Jihad against the enemy and confronting him when he sets foot on the land of the Muslims.” When will this Jihad end? The Hamas Charter quotes Hasan al-Banna, the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood: “Israel will rise and will remain erect until Islam eliminates it as it had eliminated its predecessors.”
In saying that “Islam” will eliminate Israel, Hamas, which identifies itself in the Charter as the Muslim Brotherhood’s Palestine chapter, echoes another Muslim Brotherhood document -- one in which the organization vows to work in America toward “eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and ‘sabotaging’ its miserable house by their hands and the hands of the believers so that it is eliminated and God’s religion” -- that is, Islam -- “is made victorious over all other religions.” That is a political statement, not solely a religious one: it is a declaration of intent to bring Islamic law, Sharia, to America, and enforce here its codified discrimination against women and non-Muslims, and its denial of the freedom of speech and the freedom of conscience.
Yet at the same time, it is a religious statement, like those in the Hamas Charter. The fact that those who are waging jihad warfare against Israel and the United States believe that they are carrying out divine commands ensures that neither jihad will end with changes in economic conditions, or with a negotiated settlement. While Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal has indicated a willingness to enter into a long-term truce with Israel, he also told Iranian supremo Ali Khamenei in May 2008 that “the Palestinian nation will continue its resistance despite all pressures and will not under any circumstances stop its jihad.”
Was Meshaal, then, simply lying when he declared his openness to a truce? Not at all -- but his call must be understood in light of his own frame of reference, not a Western one to which he does not subscribe. In the West, nations enter into truces with one another because they are weary of war and value peace. No such concept of truce exists in the Islamic law that Hamas and Meshaal accept as their supreme guide. In traditional and authoritative Islamic law, a Muslim force may agree to a truce with a non-Muslim enemy only if the Muslims reasonably expect that their opponents are prepared to convert to Islam, or if the Muslims are weak and need time to gather their strength to fight again more effectively. It is the latter concept to which Hamas has been having recourse in its short-term truces with Israel: it uses the cessation of hostilities as an opportunity to get back on its feet, and then the rockets start once again raining down upon Israel.
The EU and the U.N., and all those calling upon Israel to enter into another truce, should take careful note of that fact. Hamas has never hidden its intention to destroy Israel. Israel should not be impeded in its necessary struggle to destroy Hamas.
Mr. Spencer,
With all do respect, isn't it time to mention article 7 that specifically discusses a religious desire to kill all Jews? If Israel were to disappear tomorrow, their charter would still obligate them to attack and murder Jews. Decent people should view them as nazis who lack the capability to implement a final solution. With that perspective, why would anybody enable them?
I wish I had read this in the NYT this morning instead of Rashid Khalili's crap.
The worrying fact is that, as per Peres' speech on December 28, 2008, Israel doesn't know why Hamas is fighting them.
It's quite clear Hamas' Charter needs to be studied and then Israel will see how they'll need to hammer Hamas permanently into the ground or, at the very best, exile them to another country where they can do less damage.
The same goes for Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad and the Palestinian Authority, although the latter opts for the slower jihad but still share the same aims as the other mad fanatics.
Ban the 653 hateful and genocidal Islamic verses that Jamal al Banna (brother of Muslim Brotherhood founder) says inspire Muslims to commit crimes against humanity (mass murder, rape, slavery, violent misogyny)against the entire world.
These verses (and some others) are what drives Hamas, nothing else. Until they are defused, causing Hamas to die a natural death, the only disproportionate response, at this point, Israel can do against the Malestinian menace (really just the tip of the 1.5 billion member Islamonazi spear) is nuking it. And even that is becoming less and less certain.
France and the Czech Republic are two nations which should readily comprehend why one's mortal enemy needs to be utterly destroyed.
I guess Sarkozy would have argued that a 'ceasefire' was preferable over ridding Europe of the Nazi scum...
These EUphile politicians are willing to negotiate with - and enter deals with - anyone, be they the Devil incarnate. They just can't discriminate 'Good' from 'Evil' - possibly doing so has been outlawed.
Hamas deserves the hammering they're getting.
Any 'ceasefire' should be on the clear condition that Israel can and will retaliate every single attack from the area. They should have done so years ago, but we always urged 'restraint', which abetted terrorist activites - in the land that Israel gave up voluntarily!
Land for Peace doesn't work.
Also worth remembering is that Hamas doesn't think of 'ceasefire' in the way we use the term in the West. They use the term 'Hudna', which is more accurately translated into "Rearmament break".
Which means that if we stop fighting them, they will use the opportunity to prepare more bloodshed.
May the IDF destroy Hamas utterly!
Hamas is losing the PR war because the usefull idiots in the west have finally seen evidence of how hamas grabs children to use as shields , even the Arab nation are condemning Hamas for causing the deaths from their actions .
Now that those thugs in Lebanon are firing rockets too, Israel should keep pounding those bastards into the stone age so people will see exactly how many children the Islamists will murder for Allah.
Human Right were intended for Humans, not the sick and twisted animals bend on slaughtering every non-Muslim on Earth.
GO ISRAEL
Know islam
No Peace
No Islam
Know Peace.
Buy American
Bye Jihad
It is now reported that Hamas wired the school to explode.
Bastards. Sacrificing their own children for PR purposes? How low can they go?
A ceasefire?
They mean a stop of attacks so that Hamas can rebuild their launch sites, bring in more ammunition from Iran and plan better and more deadlier attacks on Israel?
The really sad thing is that many people in the West haven't got a clue that Hamas is a terrorist organisation that isn't interested in peace whatsoever but instead total annihilation of Israel.
I certainly don't agree on a ceasefire, now or ever. This war, as this is what it now is, must be continued until Hamas has been completely obliterated. I am in support 100% of Israel and the IDF.
On the CH4 news last night, one of the reporters spoke to the Shimon Peres and I loved the way that Peres handled him.
After polite conversation the journalist asked:
"The World thinks......" at which point Peres cut him short and said "Stop, you are not the World. You do not represent the World. Do not speak for the World. We are under attack and have the right to defend ourselves and make our citizens safe and secure like any other country would"
I thought it was brilliant. He was polite and eloquent and put the reporter in his place. There are far too many reporters who speak too much and profess to speak for this and that. He was cut down to size.
There will be no peace until Hamas is destroyed. Worse still, there will be no peace against Israel while there is Islam. This is why Israel needs the West's support 100% all the time. It has been said by many that Israel is the Front line of the West, democracy and freedom and we owe it to them to help them fight against Islam. Until we also look at Islam in our own countries seriously and start cutting its size down, then we too will face the same problems of Israel.
Since Hamas started this war with months and years of unprovoked rocket attacks launched against Israel, a unilateral cease fire by Israel would be total and unconditional surrender by the Israelis. Hamas could then do whatever it wished with Israel.
Only a fool or anti-semitic would suggest such a thing.
RTL,
I saw that clip from Julian Manion speaking to Shimon Peres! I went to bed with a smug, self-satisfied grin on my face!
I would love to attend the pro-Israel rally in London, but age, health concerns and distance are against me. Please wave your Israeli flag for me, too. I will be with you all in spirit! God bless you all!
Is it possible to crush Hamas, an organization that has the backing of hundreds of thousands in Gaza?
Hugh has sugggested that the West could contain Islam by separating Muslim populations from the civilized world and by periodically bombing weapons caches from the air, as necessary. But even now, when the threat is (probably) not chemical or biological, we see that ground forces were needed. We will not be able to defend ourselves solely from the air.
In light of the fact that Hezbollah are now launching rockets into Israel from Lebanon, I would say the suggestion of a cease-fire is now a moot point.
Muslims shudder and ultimately self-destruct simply at the thought of peace with Israel.
"Israel’s chief aim is to stop the rocket attacks into southern Israel from Gaza and prevent them from recurring."
Yeah, but what does this really mean? Can't expect the politicians to admit it but a little reflection would indicate this means destroying Hamas, killing its will to fight on and believe in itself. For radical "love death" cult zombies this means nearly all must be annihilated. This has to mean that to accomplish the aim above for good there must be well over 100,000 Hamas fatalities (not a measly few hundred so far) with no truce because there should not be enough of Hamas left for a truce to make sense. This will take a lot of time (months) with a lot building to building searches and blow-ups. The IDF must fight this war as a war or else it is wasting its time and they must know this better than I, but will they be allowed to do this?
While it's tragic about the innocent children casualties that Hamas doesn't care about, I can't imagine anything more stupid at this time than a lot Western political pressure to stop the only realistic solution to the Hamas terror problem.
I love the "We in Europe" part. Who are "we"?
Half a dozen idiotic individuals who believe they rule the world?
Stand firm, Israel!
'We in Europe' refers to the self-sufficient EUSSR elite who cannot handle any kind of confrontation, be it diplomatic or armed.
These blockheads we have as a poor mans' substitute for real leaders start every negotiation with giving away half of our position, then start haggling over how much of the other half we should give away.
The EU-Turkey process is a prime example of this stupidity.
Yes! Yes ! yes! Israel should agree to a ceasefire, as soon as all muslims worldwide disarm.
Sencit,
Julian Manion was put in his place and rightly so!
I know you'll be with us in Spirit on Sunday and we'll raise a glass to you if we go for a beer afterwards. If the other's don't I will and drink in your health. I'm not an alcoholic or a heavy drinker, I'm going for a drink because I can and that's the most important thing about it!
Take care.
How valid are truces or treaties signed by muslims when other signatories are infidels?
Just think Hudaibiya. Just think the pirates of the Barbary Coast. Just think Ham-ass (pork ham, by the way) and the truce it had signed with Israel, and which it refused to renew.
Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me over and over and over through centuries...
In saying that “Islam” will eliminate Israel, Hamas, which identifies itself in the Charter as the Muslim Brotherhood’s Palestine chapter, echoes another Muslim Brotherhood document -- one in which the organization vows to work in America toward “eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and ‘sabotaging’ its miserable house by their hands and the hands of the believers so that it is eliminated and God’s religion” -- that is, Islam -- “is made victorious over all other religions.”
That is a religious statement? To say so is using the term 'religious' incredibly loosely. I find no religion in there. Simply envoking the term "God's religion" does not make a death-cult/political movement a religion, nor does the aspiration to "[be] made victorious over all other religions." The desire to take away religious freedom, along with every other freedom not allowed under Sharia, is not a religious one. It has to do with toppling governments and violating people's rights, not religion.
This is my main problem with Robert's approach. I have endless admiration for his knowledge, even-handedness, and scholarship generally. However, he is often too quick to contrive a theological meaning to "dogma" (i.e., political law) which is in no way theological or religious. A prime example of this would be at the end of Part 6 of the the debates which he recently posted on JW. He compared the Protestant Reformation to jihad, and that's an apples-and-elephants comparison. His point was that Muslims refuse to even admit that there is anything wrong with Islam and that that would be like Catholics never admitting that transubstation is part of Christian dogma. Huh? Transubstantion is religious and theological. Jihad, Sharia's human rights violations, and Islam more generally simply are not religious. They are political.
We need to force Islam to either reform all of its teachings to conform to Golden Rule, i.e. to become 100% moral, or treat it like the political movement/death cult that it is, because it is Nazism on steroids and it does not deserve one ounce of the respect it receives.
Only a little problem ....
If Israel stops, in less than a month more rockets will fall on its land.and one day, one rocket will be stronger than the other and destroy a lot of people.
Hamas uses their own people as shields. do you think they will hesitate for one second before destroying Israel ? no
You are dealing with evil. and It is hard to understand this concept when you did not have a personal experience with those Mahometans because the medias are not fair at all .
Any ceasefire will be a victory for Hamas just like Hizbollah did when they were crushed by Israel.