War And Truce

"The Egyptian formula was on the table on July 15th, it was backed by the Arab League, it was accepted by Israel but rejected by Hamas then and now more than a month later has belatedly been accepted by Hamas."

"As the dust clears from the conflict I'm sure many people in Gaza will be asking why did Hamas reject a month ago what it accepted today, and if it had accepted then what it accepted now, how much bloodshed could have been avoided."

Mark Regev, Israeli government spokesman

"It was possible for us to avoid all of that, 2,000 martyrs, 10,000 injured, 50,000 houses (destroyed)."

"They (Hamas) have a shadow government, if this continues it means no unity. The test is coming soon. The government needs to do its job and handle everything. I'm not saying everything needs to come to an end in one moment, this is a seven-year split that needs months or years."

Mahmoud Abbas, Palestinian Authority President

All for one: A very young fighter is decked out in military kit and gear on the streets of Gaza City of Friday

No one is happy, except for Hamas, it seems. The Israelis are disappointed, to say the least, that the final (for the time being) ceasefire has been declared and accepted by both sides, when the intractable problem that Hamas presents as a terrorist group dedicated to the destruction of Israel remains intact, even if Gaza itself does not. That is rectifiable, however, since the international community feels committed to aiding the restructuring of Gaza.

What cannot be resurrected is the lives that were lost, and that would be over two thousand Palestinians whom Hamas obviously felt no compunction in placing directly in harm's way by goading Israel to respond to its attacks on its civilian population, while launching rockets from within the crowded confines of Gaza City, inviting artillery responses back to the site of the launches, whether within UNRWA schools, city hospitals, between apartment blocks, or mosques.

Indoctrinated: Two young Palestinian boys are seen perched on the shoulders of Islamic Jihad militants, holding weapons in their hands during the victory rally in Gaza City

For Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu it's the shock that Israelis feel that there will be no end to the attacks, merely an all-too-brief interregnum before the Islamists take on the challenge of opposing the presence of a Jewish State once again. For the Palestinian Authority it's the pain of being helpless to dissuade Hamas from exposing Gazans to such tragedy, witnessing Palestinians in the throes of conflict, led by the irresponsibility of terrorists whose game was twofold; attack Israel to cause casualties there, and lead the IDF to cause casualties in Gaza.

This represents the triumph of victory to Hamas. The United Nations estimates that 100,000 Palestinians have been left homeless, and much of Gaza lies in rubble, bearing great resemblance to Syria. On the positive side for Israel, most of the tunnels that threatened to allow Hamas fighters to enter Israel for terrorist attacks have been destroyed. And one third of the rocketry also destroyed, leaving Hamas with possibly two thousand more yet to expend in its 'struggle' against the 'Zionists'.

The Palestinian 'unity' government that Israel denounced, seeing no way it could accept the legitimacy of a putative government of unity, one-half of which was sworn to destroy Israel, may be on the verge of collapse. President Abbas had visions of regaining authority in Gaza, but this is not to be; Hamas is preventing the PA's president from establishing any control of the Strip it took by force from Fatah seven years earlier.

Palestinian Islamic Jihad militants take part in the rally in Gaza City shortly after President Abbas's interview

And since Hamas rejects emphatically Israel's signal demand that it disarm, none of the demands of Hamas will see the light of day, from lifting of the border crossings to an expansion of fishing rights, and the creation of an international airport, the better to enable Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad to restock their spent caches of weapons with newer, more technologically advanced products that Qatar is eager to pay for, and Iran willing to supply.

In the final analysis, Hamas lobbed thousands of rockets for 50 days at Israel, while Israel destroyed launch sites and weapons caches and tunnels. And it took the lives of Hamas leaders to further disable the terrorist group. None of which gave Hamas pause to reconsider its triumphant assertion of victory. Like North Korea whose mad leader coerces his captive population to believe that the country keeps enjoying one triumph after another, even while people starve, Hamas pumps its population to celebrate the victory that brought death and destruction to them.

'Victory': A Palestinian girl holds a Kalashinkov as Islamist fighters celebrate what they call a 'victory' over Israel following Tuesday's ceasefire

But celebrate they do, dressing their children in cute little specially-designed military uniforms, giving them weapons to hold for adorable photographs, instilling in their impressionable minds how honourable it is to aspire to die for Islam in the process of slaughtering Jews whose sole purpose in life is to make life a misery for Palestinians.