Hamas and Israel move closer to a ceasefire

Agreement on an initial ceasefire for 10 days may come as soon as Friday. A US-Israeli intelligence deal aimed at cutting off the flow of weapons into Gaza requires the Condoleezza Rice's signature before she leaves office. Hamas says: 'Our struggle is not against the Jewish people, but against oppression and occupation. This is not a religious war. We have no quarrel with the Jewish people.' A top Bush administration official admits that the US has engaged in torture.

While Israel's foreign minister, Tzipi Livni, and its defence minister, Ehud Barak, are both reported to believe that the war on Gaza has continued for too long, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert persists in his belief that the military operation must continue until its objectives have been achieved. Israel's decision on when to halt fighting now hinges on a senior defense ministry official Amos Gilad who has been dispatched to Cairo. If Mr Gilad provides a satisfactory report on Egypt's negotiations with Hamas, then Israel will be closer to announcing its withdrawal from Gaza. That decision also hinges on American backing and on that track Israel hopes to secure an agreement that would tighten intelligence cooperation aimed at cutting off the flow of weapons into Gaza. Haaretz said: "Condoleezza Rice will step down from her post as secretary of state on Friday, which is the last day that she will be able to initial an agreement with Livni. At the heart of the document which was drawn up last week stands an unprecedented political commitment from the Americans to combat all form of arms smuggling practiced by Hamas and other terrorist organisations in the Gaza Strip. Until now, the smuggling has been a secondary issue. Israel would now like the US to explicitly commit to shutting down the arms smuggling networks by sea and by land, share intelligence, and to act as an intermediary vis-a-vis other states. "Israel views this deal as 'sticking a foot in the door' of the Obama administration, which will be asked to honour whatever the Bush administration bequeathes upon it. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who will remain in his post during the transition, is intimately familiar with the details of the agreement. "The US-Israeli memorandum of understanding is meant to serve as a layer of a sustainable ceasefire, thus it is clear that the outgoing administration will not sign off on it without an Israeli commitment that Jerusalem would cease military operations. One may view this process as an attempt by Livni to bestow upon Olmert a diplomatic achievement that would serve as an exit ramp leading to the army's exit from Gaza. The talks with Cairo necessitate much more time, and those discussions could be continued well after the ceasefire has been signed." The Guardian reported: "Last night the Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert, met his defence minister, Ehud Barak, and foreign minister, Tzipi Livni, to discuss whether to accept a ceasefire. Afterwards, Olmert's spokesman, Mark Regev, said that Israel would not accept a temporary ceasefire if it allowed Hamas to 'rearm and regroup'. 'Israel seeks a durable quiet that contains a total absence of hostile fire from Gaza into Israel and a working mechanism to prevent Hamas from rearming,' he added. "Olmert has been keen to escalate the Gaza offensive in the hope of damaging Hamas even further, while Barak was reported yesterday to favour a ceasefire now along the lines set out by Egypt. "A Hamas official in Cairo refused to say outright whether the group had accepted the ceasefire. 'We have given the Egyptian leadership all the details. They are looking into them,' Salah al-Bardawil told a news conference. 'There is no disagreement with the Egyptian leadership. The issue is differences over how to deal with the Zionist enemy through the clauses of this initiative.' " In a commentary for The Guardian, Basim Naim, minister of health in the Hamas government in Gaza, wrote: "Our struggle is not against the Jewish people, but against oppression and occupation. This is not a religious war. We have no quarrel with the Jewish people. We welcome and appreciate the stand taken by leading Jewish figures in Britain and around the world against Israel's aggression against Gaza and for the rights of our people. It is also not the case, as has been claimed, that Hamas is seeking to enforce sharia law in Gaza: we respect the democratic process and individual rights. "The continuing attempt to discredit and demonise Hamas by Israel, and its US backer, cannot hide the real atrocities and massacres they are now inflicting on our people. Hamas and its administration in Gaza remains intact, despite the devastation. This aggression will not succeed."

After President Bush has for several years insisted "we do not torture" terrorism suspects, a top administration official has acknowledged that the treatment of a Guanatanamo prison detainee met the legal definition of torture. The Washington Post reported: "The top Bush administration official in charge of deciding whether to bring Guantanamo Bay detainees to trial has concluded that the US military tortured a Saudi national who allegedly planned to participate in the Sept 11, 2001, attacks, interrogating him with techniques that included sustained isolation, sleep deprivation, nudity and prolonged exposure to cold, leaving him in a 'life-threatening condition'. " 'We tortured [Mohammed al-]Qahtani,' said Susan J Crawford, in her first interview since being named convening authority of military commissions by Defense Secretary Robert M Gates in February 2007. 'His treatment met the legal definition of torture. And that's why I did not refer the case' for prosecution. "Crawford, a retired judge who served as general counsel for the Army during the Reagan administration and as Pentagon inspector general when Dick Cheney was secretary of defense, is the first senior Bush administration official responsible for reviewing practices at Guantanamo to publicly state that a detainee was tortured." The human rights lawyer, Scott Horton, notes that Ms Crawford's admission is important for several reasons. "First, it is an acknowledgement of criminal conduct by the administration by one of its own team. Second, Crawford very properly abandons the absurd legalisms of the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel which essentially boil down to 'if the president authorises it, that means it's legal.' Third, she has apparently evaluated 'torture' on the basis of the totality of the treatment meted out by interrogators and jailers to the prisoner, not by segmenting and evaluating each individual technique applied. That is what the law requires, and what the Justice Department studiously ignores, fully aware of the inevitable conclusion to which it would lead. It adds up to another admission of high crimes. The case for criminal accountability continues to build." The New York Times reported: "President-elect Barack Obama plans to issue an executive order on his first full day in office directing the closing of the Guantánamo Bay detention camp in Cuba, people briefed by Obama transition officials said Monday. "But experts say it is likely to take many months, perhaps as long as a year, to empty the prison that has drawn international criticism since it received its first prisoners seven years ago this week. One transition official said the new administration expected that it would take several months to transfer some of the remaining 248 prisoners to other countries, decide how to try suspects and deal with the many other legal challenges posed by closing the camp."