CEASEFIRE IN GAZA NOT THE RESULT OF HILLARY CLINTON AND BARACK OBAMA’S DIPLOMATIC EFFORTS

The full credit belongs to Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi

In the midst of their Asian tour, President Obama dispatched Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to the Middle East to broker a truce between Hamas and Israel. Shortly after her meetings with Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi, a ceasefire was announced.

While President Obama made numerous phone calls to Netanyahu and Morsi, and while Clinton met personally with Netanyahu and Morsi, the ceasefire was not the result of their efforts. Even though Clinton managed to wiggle her way into a joint announcement of the ceasefire with Egyptian Foreign Minister Mohammed Kamel Amr, she really had no impact on the negotiations.

The full credit belongs to the Egyptian president who started brokering a truce well before Obama dispatched Clinton to the Middle East. Morsi’s open negotiations with Hamas and secret negotiations with Israeli delegates led to the cessation of hostilities. The best than can be said for Obama’s efforts is that in his phone calls he pressured a reluctant Netanyahu to accept a deal that may, if the ceasefire holds, harm Israel in the long-run.

While the residents of Gaza celebrated the cessation of hostilities as a victory by Hamas over Israel, the ceasefire was not welcomed by the Muslim Brotherhood and by some Israeli soldiers.

Mohammed Badei, the top cleric of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, called for a holy war to liberate Palestinian territories. “Jihad is obligatory,” Badei said. He called the peace deals with Israel a ‘game of grand deception.’ “The enemy [Israel] knows nothing but the language of force.”

And 16 Israeli Defense Force soldiers had themselves photographed on the frontlines with their uniformed bodies arranged on the ground so as to spell out ‘Bibi loser’ in Hebrew.