Palestine-Israel ceasefire agreement announced, the way forward bumpy

Since the ceasefire agreement was declared by Palestinian and Israeli leaders on February 8, although certain progress has been made by the two sides on issues of the release of Palestinians under detention and troop withdrawal, three Palestinians have been shot dead by Israeli soldiers in the same week, in retaliation Palestinian radical organizations have also constantly launched mortars and missiles against the Jewish settlements. The ceasefire agreement is once again faced with the danger of bloodshed and conflict.

The Israeli cabinet approved the name list of 500 Palestinians in custody soon to be released, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon promised that another 400 Palestinians would be set free at the second stage, but later the Israeli side postponed the set timetable on the pretext of the need to check the name list. In the meantime, the advance transfer of control power over Jericho, a town on the West Bank of the Jordan River, originally planned to begin on February 15 was also put off till the end of this week. According to a report of the newspaper, Haaretz, difference arises between Palestine and Israel over the standard for setting the scope of Jericho, and the Israeli side requires that the Palestinian side must prove it is fully able to ˇ°attack terror organizationsˇ±, and regards this as one of the prerequisites for the transfer of control power over other cities.

Analysts point out that the foundation for carrying out the ceasefire agreement lies in mutual trust. Israel's "dilation" is obviously an expression of lack of mutual trust, furthermore, this irresoluteness has given a passive signal to the Palestinian side, which is disadvantageous to the smooth implementation of the ceasefire agreement. As the strong side in the conflict, Israel's stand decides the success or failure of the ceasefire agreement.

On the other hand, Palestine is also faced with the thorny issue of how to guarantee the smooth fulfillment of internal ceasefire promise. After launching 56 indigenous missiles against Jewish settlements on February 10, the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) declared on February 12 that it would ˇ°stop attackingˇ±, but did not agree to a permanent ceasefire, this practice has undoubtedly increased difficulties for the Palestinian side to carry out the ceasefire agreement.

The Palestinian side's difficulty is expressed first in Palestinian radical organizations' difficulty accepting the control of the Palestinian security troops. Although after the announcement of ceasefire, the Palestinian authorities deployed about 5,000 policemen in the whole area of Gaza, Hamas still can break through limitations. A Palestinian analyst indicated that the infrastructure facilities of Palestinian security troops were almost completely destroyed by Israel, upon his assumption of office, the new leader Mahmoud Abbas needs time and help from the international community to intensify security department's ability to perform its duty.

Secondly, as the largest radical organization, Hamas' organization and leading force had been divided into three parts in the armed uprising in the past four years, i.e., the Gaza Strip, the West Bank of the Jordan River and the overseas branch in Syria, the leading levels in different areas pursue different tactics. As revealed by a media, Haaretz, the missile attack by Hamas on February 10 was launched in response to the order of overseas leadership, while Gaza local leaders were not much involved in it.

In addition, faced with tremendous pressure, Hamas and other radical organizations are adjusting their fighting tactics so as to seek political party-oriented and other ways to expand new development space, and thereby make bargaining with the Palestinian authorities. At the moment Abbas is in urgent need to consolidate its own leadership authority, which makes it impossible to give unreserved, one-time satisfaction to the demands of Hamas and other organizations. Therefore, before really getting guarantee and interests, the radical organizations adopt a prudent attitude toward ceasefire.

The Palestine-Israel conflict is intricate and complicated, and there are many grievances accumulated between the two over the years, although Palestinian and Israeli leaders have declared ceasefire, there exist obvious differences between both sides regarding solutions to key issues such as the final position of Jerusalem, the Jewish settlements, refugees and the partition wall. If these problems cannot be resolved, ceasefire between Palestine and Israel will still be fragile. Just as a columnist of a Palestinian newspaper Al Ayyam pointed out that the Palestinian-Israeli ceasefire is destined to go through a repeated, off-and-on, tortuous process.

By People's Daily Online