Well played Israel. You are a winner - but not forever.

Anything that cuts down the blood shed is fine with me. But the way that ceasefire came about stinks.

This 'ceasefire' is announced unilaterally. Israel had only 'negotiated' and coordinated it with the US, a country not officially or officially part of the 'war'. this joke makes it seem as if this was a war against invisible beings, except of the fact we and the world have witnessed 1300 of them get killed, rivers of their blood shed, hundreds of their little children slaughtered and thousands of their homes, schools and hospitals turned into rubble.

There was not even a slight attempt to put a fake cover by getting the PA to 'sit in' on the discussions. they probably would have had the spine to utter a single peep, but at least appearances would have been kept.

This is the same pathology that has always plagued Israeli and American policy in the Middle East. It is always about what, when and how Israel and the USA like it to be. The others, if their existence is even acknowledged, have to fall in line - or else.

Israel occupies for decades after decades.
Israel denies people even existed in the land they occupied.
Israel leaves a troubled strip of land with no one in control behind.
Israel besieges the poor people in that strip of land with no one to care for them.
Israel violates previous truces at will to kill, kidnap, bombs and detain whomever it wants.
Israel cries foul when home made Qassams fall in its own cities by the some of the people it besieges.
Israel re-occupies, pillages, demolishes at will the poor people it besieged for several years, killing hundreds of times more people than it lost.
Israel gets the full unanimous support of politicians of one country - just ONE country in the world.
Israel's stooges accuse the rest of the world of antisemitism, and Israel genuinely (!!!) thinks it was the victim in all this.

Then the big act finale

Israel 'sacrifices' by declaring unilateral ceasefire after it runs out of targets, and gets a bonus pact with the USA to comfort the poor victimized Israel.

Military domination gives the arrogant and short-sighted politicians and countries the capability of ignoring the truth, and ignoring that the universe has other creatures that may, once in a while, count. The arrogant ones do not of course realize that exercising this capability to dominate by force does not bring a solution to the problem at hand any closer.

History repeatedly shows that what goes around, comes around. And that when one resorts to the sword or heavy sticks to always get it their way, they need to remember that one day they would be the ones under the sword, or at the receiving end of the sticks.

It is that arrogance that blinds them to what they claim to have in their holy books - the Golden Rule they call it - which says: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

Yes, it is just a claim.

Because the arrogant ones have nothing holy in their eyes other than their own military might, and their wish to dominate. Domination and power is their idol.

But the Good Book says: Pride WILL come before the fall.

And common sense and experience tell us that the time to make friends, show humility and establish mutual respect is when you are in power, not when you are the underdog.

Israel is not learning from its own history. It will be a shame if they do not wake up before it is too late.

If I were Israel, I should be praying that when the shoe gets on the other foot, the mighty ones then will have more morals than what Israel has now.

Khaled

An interesting article on the Ethics of Reciprocity (the Golden Rule) can be found on Wikipedia here.