The Biden regime is doing all it can to save Hamas, and Hamas clearly sees the writing on the wall now also.
Islamic law stipulates that “if Muslims are weak, a truce may be made for ten years if necessary, for the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) made a truce with the Quraysh for that long, as is related by Abu Dawud” (‘Umdat as-Salik, o9.16).
Note that this can only be done if “Muslims are weak.” The same legal manual also quotes this verse of the Qur’an: “So do not falter and cry out for peace when you have the upper hand, and Allah is with you, and he will not deprive you of your actions.” (47:35). So Hamas would not be accepting a ceasefire at all if they believed that they were in a position of strength. “Interests that justify making a truce are such things as Muslim weakness because of lack of numbers or materiel, or the hope of an enemy becoming Muslim…” (‘Umdat as-Salik, o9.16).
The bottom line: Hamas is feeling the heat and want a ceasefire in order to regroup and emerge in a stronger position. But Western analysts do not know or care about what Islamic law says, and so they will think this means that Hamas wants peace, and amp up the pressure on Israel.
“Hamas says it accepts cease-fire proposal from Egypt, Qatar: Live updates,” by John Bacon, USA Today, May 6, 2024:
Hamas said Monday that it had accepted a Gaza cease-fire proposal from Egypt and Qatar, but details were not immediately available and it was not clear whether Israel had agreed to the terms.
The militant group said in a statement that its chief, Ismail Haniyeh, had informed Qatar’s prime minister and Egypt’s intelligence chief of its acceptance of their proposal. The announcement came hours after Palestinians were warned to evacuate parts of the souther Gaza city of Rafah as Israel prepared for an attack certain to worsen an accute humanitarian crisis.
The Israeli military instructed residents to evacuate ahead of a “limited scope” operation. Rafah, a city of about 275,000 before the war, has been overwhelmed by up to a million additional residents who fled fighting elsewhere in the embattled enclave. About 100,000 Palestinians are believed to live in the evacuation area.
The Israeli military “calls on residents in the eastern neighborhoods of Rafah to temporarily evacuate to the expanded humanitarian area” a few miles outside the city, the military said in a statement. The warnings were issued through text messages, phone calls and Arabic media broadcasts. Thousands of residents heeding the call were crowding streets with cars, pickups and mule-drawn carts, urged on by blasts heard across eastern parts of the city.
The White House issued a statement saying the administration made its oppostion [sic] to a ground invasion of Rafah clear to the Israeli government.
“We continue to believe that a hostage deal is the best way to preserve the lives of the hostages, and avoid an invasion of Rafah, where more than a million people are sheltering,” the statement said. “Those talks are ongoing now.”…
somehistory says
Perhaps Israel could hem and haw and pretend to be considering it, while going on in…quietly.
If Israel agrees, all they have accomplished is down the drain. All of the sacrifices, money, etc.
rick says
I think a few i’s have to be dotted and a few t’s crossed before it is finalized so bombing will have to continue for a few days while the details are finalized. Hope this won’t upset any of the Jew-hating-Nazi -Hamas members. And by the way, how many hostages are there alive and in reasonably good health and how many bodies are there? You forgot to include that with your acceptance of the plan making your acceptance incomplete.
Troybeam says
Israel should not stop, they should not tell the world of their plans….they should continue to wipe out that entire area, destroy tunnels and any thing Hamas uses against them.
dumbledoresarmy says
One hopes that the IDF and others in Israel have learned what most other non-Islamic state and non-state agencies seem never to have learned, in 1400 years of sporadic self-defence against the relentless jihad: that Muslims CANNOT and MUST NOT be trusted… and that if conflict with Muslims is in full swing, then the moment when the Muslims sue for ‘peace’, ‘treaty’, ‘ceasefire’ is PRECISELY the moment when you should redouble, triple, quadruple your onslaught, if that is at all practically possible. Because you are dealing with an enemy that 1/ cannot and does not and WILL NOT keep its word to you.. EVER and 2/ that does not respect the principle of reciprocity; that operates by a dualistic system according to which there is one rule for itself and another for you; that does NOT recognise or practise the ‘golden rule’. Muslims expect to be able to perform atrocities with impunity; that is their ‘right’. They expect to be treated well – to receive respect, to be given good stuff.. that is their ‘due’, they ‘deserve’ it; but they ALSO expect to be free to dish out contempt and murder in return.
Over a century ago the English writer G. K. Chesterton (writing not about muslims but about Prussian militarism) argued that the real barbarian is defined by two characteristics: he does not keep his word and “he laughs when he hurts you, but HOWLS when you hurt him”.
Frankly, the only way to deal with people whose locked-in worldview is like that, when they are attacking you and plainly threaten and intend – and in the case of Hamas have already gleefully carried out – mass-murder, is to hit repeatedly with a ten-tonne hammer until they have zero capacity to perform further harm.
Postscript: it amazes me that many people who understand quite well that petty domestic Abusers when challenged, e.g. when the cops turn up on the doorstep after the neighbours have heard the screams – will routinely Deny, Accuse, and Reverse Victim and Offender – seem completely unable to recognise the same pattern when MUSLIMS, the Ummah, the Mohammedan Mob, either as a whole or in one of their subset groups (currently, the so-called ‘Poor Palestinians’) are deploying it on the macro scale.
Mike says
Hear, hear! Brilliant comment!
Israel needs victory over HamAss!
Rufolino says
In 1945 did the Allies debate about saving Berlin in the war against Nazism ?
The evil of Nazism had to be extirpated from Germany. So the allies had to do what they did.
The evil of Hamas terrorism has to be extirpated in Gaza.
If it is not, Hamas have stated that they will repeat the crimes of Oct 7 “again and again”.
OLD GUY says
If Israel and for that matter the free world is to continue to exist Islam must be destroyed.