After 23 days of war that left 13 Israelis and almost 1300 Palestinians dead the guns have finally fallen silent over Gaza after both Israel and Hamas called independent, unilateral ceasefires. It is of course far to early to say that this war is over because with Israeli troops continuing to occupy positions within Gaza it would only take a previously unheard of militant group like Hezbollah in Palestine to inexplicably start the shooting again. Besides while the Israeli blockade of Gaza continues then the Israelis will always be at war with the Palestinians.
With this ceasefire coming just a day before the inauguration of the new President of the United States it is almost as if this had been Israels plan all along. Use the Christmas period as a cover to start a brutal war and kill as many Palestinians as possible before bringing everything to a halt just before the inauguration so the ceasefire can be dressed up as doing the US President a favour by not allowing the war to spoil his swearing in ceremony. This "favour" will of course have to be repaid at some point in the future probably in the form of increased US military aid to Israel.
The most embarrassing part of the whole facade was that last Friday, in what must be the Bush Administration's final act of thudding stupidity, the US State Department signed over to the Israelis a package of high end surveillance technology, military trainers and, most crucially, increased Israeli access to American intelligence sources in order to sweeten a deal that had already been done.
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