All ceasefires are fragile because they come on the heels of bloodshed, suffering and devastation; and in most cases one or more sides fail to achieve their objectives fully despite paying a heavy price along the way. This is very much the case with the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, with the protagonists facing each other in close proximity while distrusting each other immensely. This is not a ceasefire that either the leadership of Israel or Hamas wished for, mainly because it creates the space for an earnest questioning of their culpability for the two disastrous years they have inflicted on each other and on their own societies. As the maxim by a Soviet ‘culture’ ministry official goes: ‘When the cannons are heard, the muses are silent, when the cannons are silent, the muses are heard.’
Israel-Hamas: A fragile ceasefire tested from the word go (Yossi Mekelberg – Chatham House)
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