As of this writing, the war in the Gaza Strip has stopped. For now. After a special Motza’ei Shabbat convening of the cabinet, the government of Israel unilaterally declared a ceasefire that took effect at 2 a.m. Sunday morning.
True to form, Hamas responded with a final volley of 17 more missile and mortar rounds aimed at the civilians of southern Israel. Then it acceded to the ceasefire.
Bombastically and with the silly surrealism of an emperor wearing no clothes, Khaled Meshal, the Hamas leader headquartered at a very safe remove from the fighting in Gaza in the Bashar Assad protectorate of Damascus, announced that Hamas will halt all military activity and give Israeli troops one week to pull out of the Gaza Strip, demanding, too, that Israel end the blockade of the Hamas government and open the border crossings.
The Israel Defence Forces will maintain a presence in Gaza until the nature of Hamas’ actions, if not its intentions, toward Israel becomes clearer over the next few weeks.
Mark Regev, the spokesperson for Israel’s Prime Minister’s Office told the world that Israel “clearly does not want to” stay in Gaza, but that the Jewish state, nevertheless, would do everything it needed to maintain the calm. “If in fact we see a cessation of Hamas activity towards Israel, then we could see a long-term ceasefire,” he told Sky News.
As Prime Minister Ehud Olmert himself pointed out, the IDF will continue to operate in Gaza if Hamas continues to target Israeli citizens.
Despite contrary pronouncements, it’s not clear whether all of Israel’s military objectives were achieved by the war. After all, Hamas was able to launch rockets and mortars into southern Israel and beyond, throughout the three-week military campaign. Some smuggling tunnels undoubtedly escaped damage. And young Gilad Schalit’s whereabouts, let alone his health, remains a mystery (although, in truth, his rescue was not among the specific pre-war military objectives).
To be sure, Israel achieved a significant military victory. Hamas leaders were caught off guard by the fury and resolve of Israel’s response. The terrorists’ capacity to harm Israel has been significantly impaired. Moreover, Hamas and any other like-minded terrorist groups will surely pay heavy regard in the future to the likelihood of punishing Israeli retaliation for attempts to harm Israelis.
Israel’s decision to unilaterally declare a ceasefire was no doubt also influenced by non-military factors, such as the key involvement of Egypt (as well as Saudi Arabia in the non-spotlighted background) in working with Europe and the United States to try to find viable solutions to stopping weapons smuggling through the tunnels; sensitivity to international criticism concerning the number of civilian deaths in Gaza, and the imminence of the Obama inauguration.
For the Gaza operation to have reached a true ending, the West must join the fight against Islamist terrorism. Time will tell if, as the circumstances of last week’s ceasefire suggest, it has and if, as a result, peace will finally come to the people of Gaza and Israel.