Posted on June 16, 2006, by & filed under News.


Tony Blair, veteran of years of peace talks with the IRA, where concessions were made on both sides to hold negotiations together before the IRA abandoned completely its militaristic stance, failed to insist on Olmert going to the negotiating table with Hamas, saying “You can only negotiate with people who accept your existence and stop violence.” He failed to acknowledge that Hamas, when he spoke, had held to a ceasefire for 16 months and has talked of a long-term peace deal “for a generation”. This discipline by Hamas has been retained despite the deaths of over a hundred Palestinians, including many children, by Israeli aggression just since the Palestinian elections.

Now this ceasefire has been broken after the recent killings of 7 members of one family bathing on a Gaza beach, and the deaths of 7 other Palestinians in Gaza on the same day.