New wikileak shows cease fire was working well prior to 2008 Israeli offensive

Political Correction - Back at the end of 2008 when the Israeli government launched its war against Hamas-controlled Gaza, it insisted that it had no choice: Hamas had not maintained the cease-fire with Israel and the IDF had no choice but to respond.

But a WikiLeak cable released yesterday indicates the cease-fire was working well, perhaps too well from the point of view of Israel's Defense Minister Ehud Barak.

A secret cable, sent by the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv to the State Department reports that Barak had told Egyptian officials that the cease-fire (it is referred to by the Arabic term, tahdiya) was working fine.

Quoting an Israeli official, David Hacham, the cable reports:

Regarding the Tahdiya, Hacham said [that] Barak stressed that while it was not permanent, for the time being it was holding. There have been a number of violations of the ceasefire on the Gaza side, but Palestinian factions other than Hamas were responsible. Hacham said the Israelis assess that Hamas is making a serious effort to convince the other factions not to launch rockets or mortars. Israel remains concerned by Hamas' ongoing efforts to use the Tahdiya to increase their strength, and at some point, military action will have to be put back on the table. The Israelis reluctantly admit that the Tahdiya has served to further consolidate Hamas' grip on Gaza, but it has brought a large measure of peace and quiet to Israeli communities near Gaza....
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