| Bet you didn't see this one coming. |
Although Israel negotiated the truce with Hamas indirectly, internal Israeli critics have charged the deal grants legitimacy to the radical Islamic movement and recognition of it as the de-facto ruler of the Strip.
| Correct. Whether 'direct' or not, Hamas is now the go-to people for the Paleos, and Abbas is roadkill. |
But European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana, although he welcomed the truce, said it was too early to say whether the EU could begin holding direct talks with Hamas, which the bloc considers a terrorist organization. The truce, he nevertheless said in Brussels, could create 'a dynamic that will allow political dialogue to continue.'
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Hamas was still a 'terrorist organization,' with which Israel did not and would not hold direct negotiations. 'Hamas and the other terrorist organizations have not changed and have not become patrons of peace. These are contemptible and bloodthirsty terrorists,' Olmert told a conference near Tel Aviv.
| Yet you still talked with them, and conceded important issues to them, in return for essentially nothing. Once some 'splinter' group launches rockets at you, you'll be a laughing-stock. |
Olmert was scheduled to travel to Egypt Tuesday, for talks with Egyptian President Hosny Mubarak on the truce brokered by Cairo.
The first stage of the three-phase, six-month truce entails a mutual end of hostilities. According to Hamas officials, Israel is to lift severe restrictions on the entry of fuel into the Strip already in the first hours of the truce. As of Sunday, it is to ease restrictions on the entry of other goods.
| What does Hamas do in return? |