When is a Cease-Fire Not A Cease-Fire
The important thing to remember about this story is that there each side has entirely different ideas of what a “cease-fire” is.
For the Israelis, a cease-fire means that each side stops all hostilities and negotiates terms leading toward an actual peace treaty. In the worst case, they negotiate terms under which the cease-fire will hold and what violations will allow the prevailing side to resume hostilities (such as existed between Saddam Hussein and the nations of the Coalition after the 1991 Gulf War or that still exists between the United States/South Korea and North Korea).
For Hamas, a cease-fire is a time to re-arm, replenish personnel, engage in espionage to find weaknesses in their enemy, and occasionally launch hostile actions such as the thousands rockets launched into Israel during the latest cease-fire. It’s called hudna and it is a perfectly legitimate way for Muslims to cease hostilities against infidels aside from complete infidel capitulation.
This brief cessation could be more accurately called a tahdiyah, or a brief period of calm, that is even less substantial than a hudna. In neither case should it ever be considered a cease-fire as those who follow the international norms for war-fighting use the term.
Other Posts of Interest:
- A Little Sharia Couldn’t Be Bad, Right?
- Egypt Backs Israel’s Play, Puts the Rhetorical Smackdown on Hamas
- “Change You Can Count On” Isn’t Just A Campaign Slogan, It’s a Character Trait.
Category: Alliances and Allies, Anti-Semitism Everywhere, Fighting the Islamists
