Ayman Taha, a member of Hamas’ political wing who represents the organization in the Cairo talks, told the al-Arabiya channel yesterday that his organization has agreed to a year and a half tahdia (temporary truce where low-level fighting continues), only if all commercial crossing points into Gaza would be opened.

The London-based newspaper Asharq al-Awsat quoted Mr. Taha yesterday, as proposing that West Bank-based Palestinian Authority (PA) officials take control of the Rafah crossing into Egypt. According to Mr. Taha, Hamas and the other Palestinian organizations would agree to stop firing rockets at Israel if the Israeli-controlled crossing points around the border of the Gaza Strip are reopened.

While most people in Israel think that a tahdia is a truce or cease-fire, a temporary halt in a conflict, it isn’t necessarily so. Islamic law allows Muslims to continue their attacks during a tahdia. Prior tahdias occurred from Nov. 2006-May 2007 when Hamas facilitated more than 300 attacks, and June 2008-Dec. 2008 when Hamas facilitated more than 400 attacks.

Meanwhile, a high-ranking Israeli security official told the Israeli media yesterday that the plan to prevent arms smuggling was not completed.

<!–
AdSys ad not found for news/world:instory –>

“Quite a few details remain to be closed between Israel and Egypt,” the official said. “Despite the motivation of the Egyptian security agencies, the process will be tested by its results, and the road is long.”

The security official added that the Israeli intelligence community will cooperate with Egyptian intelligence leaders in order to advance developments on the ground.

David Bedein can be reached at dbedein@israelbehindthenews.com

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

Previous articleSimple Questions for a Complex Situation
Next articleWhen is a Cease-fire is not a Cease-fire?
David Bedein
David Bedein
David Bedein is an MSW community organizer and an investigative journalist.   In 1987, Bedein established the Israel Resource News Agency at Beit Agron to accompany foreign journalists in their coverage of Israel, to balance the media lobbies established by the PLO and their allies.   Mr. Bedein has reported for news outlets such as CNN Radio, Makor Rishon, Philadelphia Inquirer, Los Angeles Times, BBC and The Jerusalem Post, For four years, Mr. Bedein acted as the Middle East correspondent for The Philadelphia Bulletin, writing 1,062 articles until the newspaper ceased operation in 2010. Bedein has covered breaking Middle East negotiations in Oslo, Ottawa, Shepherdstown, The Wye Plantation, Annapolis, Geneva, Nicosia, Washington, D.C., London, Bonn, and Vienna. Bedein has overseen investigative studies of the Palestinian Authority, the Expulsion Process from Gush Katif and Samaria, The Peres Center for Peace, Peace Now, The International Center for Economic Cooperation of Yossi Beilin, the ISM, Adalah, and the New Israel Fund.   Since 2005, Bedein has also served as Director of the Center for Near East Policy Research.   A focus of the center's investigations is The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). In that context, Bedein authored Roadblock to Peace: How the UN Perpetuates the Arab-Israeli Conflict - UNRWA Policies Reconsidered, which caps Bedein's 28 years of investigations of UNRWA. The Center for Near East Policy Research has been instrumental in reaching elected officials, decision makers and journalists, commissioning studies, reports, news stories and films. In 2009, the center began decided to produce short movies, in addition to monographs, to film every aspect of UNRWA education in a clear and cogent fashion.   The center has so far produced seven short documentary pieces n UNRWA which have received international acclaim and recognition, showing how which UNRWA promotes anti-Semitism and incitement to violence in their education'   In sum, Bedein has pioneered The UNRWA Reform Initiative, a strategy which calls for donor nations to insist on reasonable reforms of UNRWA. Bedein and his team of experts provide timely briefings to members to legislative bodies world wide, bringing the results of his investigations to donor nations, while demanding reforms based on transparency, refugee resettlement and the demand that terrorists be removed from the UNRWA schools and UNRWA payroll.   Bedein's work can be found at: www.IsraelBehindTheNews.com and www.cfnepr.com. A new site,unrwa-monitor.com, will be launched very soon.

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR