What about a complete halt to attacks by Israel against HAMAS? These attempts at peace always break down because Israel will demand HAMAS cease fire, but continue to attack Palestinians, such as the 2006 Gaza Beach Massacre, under Operation First Rain, which reignited the conflict.

Hamas offers Gaza truce with Israel
Thu Apr 24, 2008 11:32am EDT
By Jonathan Wright

CAIRO (Reuters) - Hamas leaders handed over on Thursday proposals for a truce with Israel in the Gaza Strip, with a timetable for extending it to the West Bank, at a meeting of the Palestinian Islamist group with Egyptian mediators.

Former Palestinian Foreign Minister Mahmoud el-Zahar and former Interior Minister Saeed Seyam held talks with Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman, Egypt's main contact with the Palestinian Islamist (Why is the Israeli Government never noted as a Zionist movement?) movement Hamas and Israel, the Egyptian state news agency MENA said.

A Palestinian official close to the talks said the Hamas delegation would tell Suleiman it is prepared to accept the idea of a staged truce, starting with Gaza only.

"Hamas's position is that they agree to a calm in Gaza and the West Bank but it would begin in Gaza at this stage and then apply to the West Bank after an agreed and specified period of time," said the official, who declined to be named.

Hamas, which controls Gaza but has prominent members resident in the West Bank, has previously insisted that a truce should begin and apply at the same time to both areas.

Israel said it was ready for "quiet" at the Gaza border, but that it would require a complete halt to attacks by Hamas on Israelis, a stop to cross-border rocket fire from all Palestinian groups and an end to weapon smuggling into Gaza.

"We can't have a period of quiet that will just be the quiet before the storm," said Mark Regev, spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

The Palestinian official said Hamas made any truce conditional on Israel opening all of Gaza's border crossings and halting military action in the territory.

The elected group had backing from other Palestinian militant factions in the enclave, he added.

ISRAELIS SCEPTICAL

Egypt would relay Hamas's proposal to Israel in the coming days, he added. Israeli officials said they were skeptical about the chances of reaching a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.

(This is because they engineered this 'crisis', and don't want it to end.)

"We are not holding our breath," a senior Israeli official said. "We certainly don't want Hamas to have an interval to get stronger."

Israel has said it is not negotiating a truce with Hamas but would have no reason to launch attacks on the Gaza Strip if rocket fire from the territory ceased. But it says it reserves the right to take military action to protect its citizens.

(However, Israel planned attacks on Gaza long before any rockets, which Israel's own defence staff warned would result from Israel's imposition of Collective Punishment on Gaza.)

The Egyptian intelligence chief, who is in regular contact with the Israelis, has been trying to negotiate a truce between Israel and Hamas, especially since Palestinians broke through the border with Egypt in January to escape a long Israeli siege.

Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, on a Middle East tour which ended this week, tried to persuade Hamas to declare a unilateral ceasefire with Israel. Hamas declined on the grounds that Israel had not responded to similar gestures in the past.

Dozens of Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza in the past 10 days.

(Did you hear about them in our news?)

Three Israeli soldiers were killed on the border with Gaza on April 16.

MENA quoted a senior Egyptian official as saying that a truce would contribute to talks between Israel and the rival Fatah movement of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, as well as to reconciliation between Hamas and Fatah.

(Additional reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi; Writing by Jonathan Wright; Editing by Charles Dick)

www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSL2412233620080424

As Predicted: Israel Rejects Truce, Calls Offer 'Failure'
www.israel.indymedia.org/newswire/display/8882/index.php

Real Diplomacy: Carter Meets Hamas
israel.indymedia.org/newswire/display/8877/index.php

No Peace Without Hamas
www.israel.indymedia.org/newswire/display/8876/index.php

Hamas ready to accept Israel as its neighbour: Carter
www.israel.indymedia.org/newswire/display/8874/index.php

Israel rejects Hamas offer for Gaza truce
Officials claim proposal would allow Palestinian group to re-arm

(However, with the policy these groups are responding to eliminated, they wouldn't need to. In reality, Israel doesn't wish to end the 'crisis' which it engineered.)

MSNBC News Services
updated 1:33 a.m. CT, Fri., April. 25, 2008

GAZA City, Gaza Strip - Israel dismissed on Friday a proposal by Hamas to call a conditional six-month truce in the Gaza Strip, calling it a ruse aimed at allowing the Palestinian elected group to recover from recent fighting.

"Hamas is biding time in order to rearm and regroup. There would be no need for Israel's defensive actions if Hamas would cease and desist from committing terrorist attacks on Israelis," Israeli government spokesman David Baker said.

(However, Israel's own defence staff warned that imposing illegal measures of Collective Punishment on Gaza, in order to undermine the elected Government, would provoke a violent response. If Israel ended this illegal and immoral policy, the fighting would follow.)

In apparent reference to Israeli air strikes and commando raids in Gaza, Baker added: "Israel will continue to act to protect its citizens."

(Rejecting peace, and imposing illegal measures known to provoke violence, do nothing to protect Israeli citizens ...)

Following talks with Egyptian mediators, Hamas on Thursday called for a mutual cessation of hostilities in Gaza along with an end to a crippling Israeli-led blockade on the territory.

During the proposed truce, Egypt would try to extend it to the occupied West Bank, another territory where Palestinians are fighting for statehood, Hamas said.

(Actually, it's another part of the Palestinian state Israel refuses to recognize ...)

Hamas, which controls Gaza while Western-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas holds sway in the West Bank, had previously demanded that any cease-fire be implemented in both areas simultaneously.

There have been few shooting attacks in the West Bank in recent years, but Israel has repeatedly said Abbas’ government is not yet capable of controlling militants in the territory.

(This is a very deceptive statement. While Palestinian violence has been scarce, Israeli attacks on Palestinians have spiked in recent years. The bias of this source is glaring ...)

Two Israeli security guards slain
Separately Friday, a Palestinian militant shot and killed two Israeli security guards in a factory on the border between Israel and the West Bank, the Israeli military said.

Medics pronounced the two middle-aged guards dead at the scene, rescue services said, and troops began combing surrounding areas for traces of the assailant.

No Palestinian militant group immediately claimed responsibility.

www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24292764/