Netanyahu persuaded to act with common decency. Yay let’s celebrate.

[Decisionsdecisions1]

Is it really a cause for celebration that he has agreed to stop bombing children?

That Palestinian civilians can now sift through the rubble for the remains of their families, while continuing to suffer from malnutrition and disease and without basic shelter, fuel, medical infrastructure etc. But it’s ok as they won’t be bombed/shot while doing it.

And for those who are already displaced - a bright future as unwanted refugees shunted and rejected by one country after another. (I doubt Reforms England will be welcoming).

Forgive me if I don’t celebrate with Israel at Eurovision and pretend 19k children (at least) weren’t killed.
Forgive me if I don’t applaud Trump as some kind of benevolent genius.

The next step should be prosecution for war crimes. That I would celebrate.

Bitterness gets you nowhere.

Better to look forward than back. It was a massive task to get Netanyahu & the Hamas leadership to agree to a ceasefire. This is the best chance for peace we’ve seen in a long time. People on both sides of the conflict ( Hamas & Netanyahu & certain IDF soldiers) will be investigated for war crimes and if found guilty, punished accordingly.

But most of us are very happy to see an end in sight re the fighting in Gaza.

The next steps should be-

Return of hostages / detainees
Setting up a coalition to run Gaza during the period immediately after ceasefire that centres Arab voices- preferably Palestinian voices, but that utterly repudiates political violence.
Elections in Israel.
Moderate Palestinian voices to come into Palestinian politics.
Reconciliation committees between the 2 sides.
Recognition of the rights of both groups as indigenous and deserving of self determination.
Peace.

Its possible.

🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏

I totally agree, so them returning to the remains of their homes still won't be risk-free because they'll just be less bombing, not no bombing. Even in times that Israel called 'peace', they rarely went more than a couple of days without killing a Palestinian. On average every other day they killed someone.

I'm hoping that with the international eye much closer on Gaza, Israel may behave better for once, but I'm not holding my breath.

I remember you saying a couple months ago when we were talking about various things that had happened, people alleged to have been killed etc, that once the war was over that there would be an independent investigation into these things so that people could be brought to justice. So we shouldn't think about them now. We should think about them after the war.

Have you now changed your stance on this?

No I said in my post above that people on both sides of the conflict will be investigated for war crimes so I don’t get your point?

There will be independent investigations done & court cases - but the official ceasefire only started at 10am today UK time (announced by Israel this morning).

I think I misunderstood and for that I apologise. I was taking your 'look forward rather than back' as a, let's forget about all of that, when actually you went on to say there needs to be those investigations. I read what you said too quickly. I am interested though when you come to me back later on how Hamas have been firing weapons since 11:00 p.m. last night.

Apology accepted and I will get back to you on the other thread where we were discussing that other issue once I’m on my laptop again.

I find it harder to link stuff from my phone.

I think it is cause for Palestinians in Gaza to celebrate if it means they can tuck their babies into their tents knowing they won't be blown to pieces as they sleep.

I think that taking a wider view though boycotting Israel, pressuring our governments to enact sanctions on Israel for their illegal occupation and apartheid, to ban the import of goods from illegal Israeli settlements etc still need to stand. Peace won't be reached until Israel stop breaking International law on a daily basis and stop purposefully imposing hardship and suffering in order to try and ethnically cleanse Palestinians them from their land. The world needs to send Israel the message that their violent land grabbing needs to end now.

I think we also need pressure to allow independent observers into Gaza for as long as it takes for them to piece together exactly what Israel have done to Palestinians over the past two years, any crimes need to be followed up with prosecutions and soldiers returning to countries like the UK and France need to be fully investigated to see if they hold any complicity in these crimes. War criminals have no place on our streets and this message needs to be made clear, if you travel to a foreign country to take part in a genocide you will be fully investigated to find out what role you played in it.

I'd imagine that Gazans are extremely happy - in fact I don't need to imagine, I've seen plenty of footage of them celebrating.

I'm sorry that it doesn't meet your exacting standards though, in your safety thousands of miles away.

I think that taking a wider view though boycotting Israel, pressuring our governments to enact sanctions on Israel for their illegal occupation and apartheid, to ban the import of goods from illegal Israeli settlements etc still need to stand. Peace won't be reached until Israel stop breaking International law on a daily basis and stop purposefully imposing hardship and suffering in order to try and ethnically cleanse Palestinians them from their land. The world needs to send Israel the message that their violent land grabbing needs to end now.

If this ceasefire holds, then longer term, Israel will likely continue to normalise relations with countries such as Saudi and the UAE, the war will largely slip out of the news cycles and most people's minds, and only a small, hardline group of Israel obsessives will do their thing to "send Israel the message".

Aye, let's hope that people forget about this inconvenient genocide and war crimes in time eh...

Not if it's got anything to do with me, that's for sure. Fortunately the ICC isn't going to forget about it any time soon.

Fucking hell.

Can someone explain why it seems some are absolutely seething that there might be peace? Quibbling and bitter, whilst enjoying the safety of their lovely western homes.

Because it looks completely batshit.

I've not seen anyone seething about peace

Well said.

I feel exactly how I did six months ago when a ceasefire that had lasted for weeks was suddenly and inexcusably abandoned by Bibi & co. Is that a long time?

There was a video montage of different people who have worked with Netanyahu including politicians and former prime ministers talking about how duplicitous he is and how he regularly lies and breaks agreements. I hope this ceasefire will hold but I worry that as soon as the hostages are released he will find a reason to break it and if he can’t find a reason he will create a reason and the US will let him. Already today we have seen more Palestinians killed in Gaza despite the ceasefire and we have seen olive groves burned and dozens of Palestinians injured by settlers in the West Bank. The violence has reduced but not ended. I hope there will be peace but I worry that there is nothing in the agreement to really hold Israel to it.

I think you have to celebrate peace.

I predict there will be many looking for the justification for continuing support of the pro Palestinian movement such as the hate marches in London and 'justice for Plaestine' will be the theme. I am sure many will continue to want to 'educate' newer generations about the 'unjust' formation of the modern state of Israel and continue to demonise her despite accepting a peace deal.

I was hoping peace would bring an end to the hate but I am sure this thread will remain up not to discuss peace in the middle East but to indulge in the narrative that Israel and it's people are to be blamed for this hopefully past war.

Theres a warped view of what happened on these boards. Hamas had to agree to returning the hostages for any possibility of peace. May as well have said Hamas finally has the decency to return hostages, dead and alive to their families.

It’s a negotiated ceasefire, both sides have to make commitments to achieve this. And lets be honest the only reason this has happened is because Israel bombed Qatar who now know that hosting Hamas isn’t risk free fun and have dragged them to the negotiating table.

The way people talk on these boards as if 7th October never happened and this war kicked off just because Netanyahu felt like it.

Hamas could have stopped this at any point by returning hostages and surrendering.

Can we please remember who started this and how they started it? A music festival was attacked. Young women were gang raped and set on fire. A kibbutz was attacked and babies put in ovens while young men phoned their parents to tell them what they were doing and rejoice in it.

October 7th is a date largely forgotten it seems

It will never be forgotten. It's just that some don't like it to be mentioned.

It will be recorded in history as the date Hamas attacked Israel, an action that provoked a war that lasted 2 years (hopefully it is over now).

I agree
Its a tense time for the people of Gaza
Praying this ceasefire will hold.

but I’m not fully celebrating yet after the last one looked so promising
and Netanyahu broke it.

This time however it’s feeling more official

Agree
Im hoping he’s definately prosecuted for war crimes
Not sure how that works ie whether it’s just him or his whole Government or war cabinet.

But agree OP I would expect investigations to begin immediately.

No idea what’s happening atm in the West Bank.

Hoping peace extends to all