A cease-fire? I don’t believe it will hold a single day.

Israel accepted a Palestinian cease-fire to go in effect Sunday morning, and will stop military operations in Gaza in return for an end to all Palestinian violence, including rocket fire, tunneling, and suicide bombers, the Prime Minister’s Office announced Saturday night.

The dramatic announcement followed a telephone conversation between Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas.

According to the Prime Minister’s Office, Abbas phoned Olmert and told him that he had received an agreement from all the different Palestinian factions to the cease fire, and in response “requested that Israel would stop all military operations in the Gaza Strip, and withdraw all its forces from there.”

What about Gilad Shalit, who has been a hostage since the summer?

No mention was made in the statement about kidnapped soldier Crpl. Gilad Shalit, whose abduction on June 25th led to the IDF’s stepped-up actions in Gaza.

The agreement, according to Israeli officials, did not apply to military actions in the West Bank. The key now, the officials said, would be to see whether indeed all the different Palestinian factions have signed on - and would honor - the cease-fire agreement.

How is the AP spinning this? By once again blaming the victim, of course. The Israeli offense was in response to the firing of rockets and the murder and kidnap of her soldiers, but you’d never know that if you only read this:

JERUSALEM Nov 25, 2006 (AP)— Israel and the Palestinians agreed to a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip on Saturday to end a five-month Israeli military offensive and the firing of rockets by Palestinian militants into the Jewish state, a spokeswoman for Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Saturday.

A spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas confirmed the cease-fire, saying it would take effect at 6 a.m. Sunday.

Abbas telephoned Olmert late Saturday to tell him he had arrived at an agreement with all Palestinian factions to stop firing rockets into Israel from the coastal strip, Olmert spokeswoman Miri Eisin said.

That would be this rocket fire:

Meanwhile Qassam attacks against Israeli towns in the western Negev continued on Saturday. A Qassam rocket fired by gunmen from the northern Gaza Strip landed in greenhouses in Netiv Hasara on Saturday evening.

Hours later two rockets landed in open fields in the western Negev. No one was injured and no damage was reported.

Two rockets fired into Israel Saturday afternoon landed in open fields in the Eshkol community.

Here’s the thing: The terrorists never ask for a cease-fire unless they’re suffering heavy losses. That’s only one of the reasons I don’t believe Israel should stop operations in Gaza. They also never ask for one unless they know that Israel is planning a major offensive. But then, the Israelis constantly give ground on ultimatums. From a press conference today. Yes, today:

The same Egyptian source added that the Hamas delegation asked to Egyptians to contact Israel and find out what is the maximal price it is willing to pay for Shalit.

“The Israelis were very clear and said that the siege would not be lifted before Shalit is released,” the source said.

Either the source is wrong—which is entirely possible—or the Israelis gave ground. I’m thinking it’s probably the latter. And yet, Hamas gets to blame Israel for the impasse in negotiations on the kidnap victim:

Mashaal added that “once must not make a connection between the issue of the establishment of a national unity government and a truce with Israel or Shalit’s release. In terms of the establishment of a unity government there is progress, but Israel is the one opposing the release of prisoners.”

I think the IDF should just go back to the targeted assassination schedule, and start with the Hamas leadership—in Damascus and in Gaza. That stopped them the last time.

If I were someone who only read the headlines, boy, would I think those Israelis are the villains in these pieces.

Hamas Offers Peace Talks for 6 Months

Israel rejects Palestinian peace offer

Meshal: Israel is to blame for lack of progress on Shalit deal

Israel Kills Two Palestinians in Gaza: Medics

Wow. Look at those bloodthirsty Israelis. Hamas offered them a truce, and they told Hamas to go eff off. Then, it’s all their fault that the deal to return their kidnapped soldier fell through. Why, it’s like Israel expects terrorists not to kidnap soldiers, or something! And to top it off, that nameless, faceless “Israel” went and killed two palestinians. A medic said so.

So, let’s take a look at the stories behind the headlines. That “truce” being offered? Not so much.

Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas said armed factions had agreed Thursday to halt rocket fire in exchange for a complete cessation of Israeli military operations in Gaza and the West Bank.

“The ball now is in the Israeli court,” Haniyeh said. “It (Israel) must stop its aggression and escalation against the Palestinian people, then there will be no problem according to what the factions agreed in their last meeting.”

The deal is this: Israel doesn’t get to try to prevent suicide attacks, capture terrorists who are trying to or who already have killed Israelis, find and destroy weapons caches, and prevent terror attacks on her people. In return, the palestinians say they will stop firing rockets—from Gaza, which no longer has a single Jewish citizen—into Israeli territory. There’s also that little issue about palestinian prisoners. Hamas wants them all released, even the ones who are in prison for life for having murdered or conspired to murder Israelis.

Now for the latest truce offering, which is under the bland headline of Hamas Offers Peace Talks for 6 Months. What the headline should actually say is “Hamas threatens uprising if Israel doesn’t fold,” but hey, that’s just me.

Hamas’ leader said Saturday his group was willing to give peace negotiations with Israel six months to reach an agreement for a Palestinian state in Gaza and the West Bank, but threatened a new uprising if the talks fail.

The comments by the group’s Damascus-based supreme leader Khaled Mashaal were double-edged. It was the strongest confirmation by the Hamas political chief that the Islamic militant group would allow moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to try to negotiate with Israel. But it was also the first time he has set a deadline with an explicit threat of a new uprising.

“We give six months to open real political horizons … We agreed on the national accord to establish a Palestinian state, with the June 4, 1967 borders,” he told a news conference in Cairo, referring to Israel’s borders before it captured the West Bank, east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip. “They have to seize this opportunity.”

If an agreement is not reached within that time frame, Mashaal threatened a new confrontation with Israel.

“Hamas will become stronger and the resistance will resume … and will go on with a third uprising,” he said.

That word, “resume”—I don’t think it means what you think it means. In order to resume something, it has to have stopped. Hamas has never stopped trying to kill Israelis.

But notice how the AP acknowledges the threat in the lead, but downplays it, and still tries to blame Israel for it. There is a name for asking for something and threatening violence if you don’t get it. It’s called blackmail.

Now to the two palestinians who were killed by “Israel“:

Israeli soldiers clashed with Palestinian gunmen in the northern Gaza Strip on Saturday, killing one militant, hospital officials said.

In a separate incident overnight, an unidentified Palestinian was shot dead by Israeli troops while approaching the strategic Karni border crossing.

Ah. Terrorists, trying to kill Israelis, were killed by soldiers. Funny how they can’t even call them “militants” in the headline, when they do in the story. But hey, then al-Rotters wouldn’t get as many Europeans to hate Israel as they do.

Lastly, this classic piece in Ha’aretz, taken from the wire services: It’s all Israel’s fault that Hamas won’t give back their kidnapped soldier.

Also Saturday, Meshal blamed Israel for the lack of progress on a deal that would lead to an agreement to free Shalit, captured by Hamas militants in June, in exchange for some 1,000 Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails.

“We are not the reason behind postponing the decision; the postponing of a settlement is due to the other side,” Meshal said.

There is apparently no cognitive dissonance in quoting a Hamas terrorist blaming the victim for not yielding to the kidnappers’ demands. The AP writes it, and Ha’aretz—and thousands of other newspapers around the world—print it. And the hatred for Israel rises, as does world anti-Semitism. But that’s a post for another time.