What's Taking Them So Long

The JPost is reporting that Israel would stop bombing the bejeezus out of Gaza, but those horrible Hamas folks are under pressure to reject the generous Israeli cease-fire from (deep breath) IRAN.

Iran is exerting heavy pressure on Hamas not to accept the Egyptian proposal for a cease-fire with Israel, an Egyptian government official said on Sunday.

The official told The Jerusalem Post by phone that two senior Iranian officials who visited Damascus recently warned Hamas leaders against accepting the proposal.

His remarks came as Hamas representatives met in Cairo with Egyptian Intelligence Chief Gen. Omar Suleiman and his aides to discuss ways of ending the fighting in the Gaza Strip.

The Hamas representatives reiterated their opposition to a cease-fire that did not include the reopening of all the border crossings into the Gaza Strip, Hamas spokesmen said on Sunday.

The spokesmen said Hamas voiced its strong opposition to the idea of deploying an international force inside the Gaza Strip.

The Egyptian official said that the two Iranian emissaries, Ali Larijani, Speaker of the Iranian Parliament, and Said Jalili of the Iranian Intelligence Service, met in the Syrian capital with Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal and Islamic Jihad Secretary-General Ramadan Shallah.

"As soon as the Iranians heard about the Egyptian cease-fire initiative, they dispatched the two officials to Damascus on an urgent mission to warn the Palestinians against accepting it," the Egyptian government official told the Post.

Reactions from the right range from this article indicating joy at the impending end of Hamas to jubilation over a clear and total win for the IDF to a capital reason for Israel to attack Iran as soon as possible.

The possibility that a hardline Israeli newspaper is running a story that just happens to indicate total victory by reporting second hand info from Egypt on what Iran is up to regarding Hamas might be propaganda of some sort has of course not occured to anyone.