I was going to write about the Bedioun girls hurt in a rocket attack, or about the attempt by Hamas to use a drone to attack Israel (that we shot down by missile), but, happily there is better news: It looks like we are about to enter into a ceasefire with Hamas. The Egyptians have called for a ceasefire starting tomorrow morning at 9:00 a.m. Our security cabinet will be getting an early start on the morning meeting (at 7 a.m.), when they will no doubt accept the ceasefire. The Egyptians stepped in after the military arm of Hamas – who rejected earlier requests turned to them and asked for the ceasefire.
The terms of the ceasefire are for all sides to stop any aggressive actions against the other. Then within 48 hours the sides are set to meet in Egypt separately with the Egyptians to work out additional terms. It's not totally clear what those terms will be, but they will most likely include a return to the status of "quiet for quiet" that existed before the latest flareup.
As I said in my article this afternoon – calling on our side to announce a ceasefire – we have won this round and it is time to let the country return to normal. There is not a chance we are going to turn down an Egyptian call, especially one backed by the US.
Unless we are willing to risk losing a significant number of men, and know what we do the day after we reconquer Gaza, we must accept the best we can get – and in the meantime even further strengthen our defense systems, (as I have said on numerous times.) Our problems from Gaza are the more manageable ones. Tonight we had additional fire both from Lebanon and Syria. Nothing good is going to come from that. But they will die down for the moment now that there will be a ceasefire.
For anyone thinking of visiting Israel, there are some great deals on hotels and air fares right now!
