It was reported Wednesday that both Israel and the Palestinian Authority led by Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas are willing to accept a ceasefire proposal put forth by Egypt and France. Aside from ending the war, the ceasefire agreement as proposed by Egypt would end Israel’s blockade of Gaza while Hamas would have to stop firing any rockets and carrying out any terrorist attacks against Israelis / Israel.

Although Fatah and Israel have both indicated they are willing to accept the agreement with minor changes, everyone has yet to hear from Hamas, the organization that is at the root at the conflict. Although it agreed to cease hostilities for three hours yesterday, it has yet to respond to the proposal that would, if all sides abide by it, end hostilities for years to come, creating room and time for a peaceful solution for the Middle Eastern problem, hopefully resulting in two states; Israel and a sovereign Palestine.

Hamas’ unwillingness to embrace the plan immediately makes once again clear that Hamas, not Israel, is the true aggressor. The terrorist organization welcomes all deaths; it even goes so far as to hide in schools, fire at Israeli soldiers from the building (if this is indeed what happened), and rig the building with explosives that will cause as many Palestinian children to lose their lives as possible if Israel would react violently to the attacks.

Be that as it may, Hamas has to play ball. If it does not accept the proposal or if it breaks it after a few weeks (or months), all will have been for nothing. Israel and the West as a whole have to make sure that either Hamas will be so severely weakened that it cannot attack Israel for a year (perhaps two) to come, or they have to convince Hamas’ leaders to abide by the ceasefire regardless of the group’s strength. Since Hamas’ leaders are extremists pure and simple, the second option does not seem very viable; Israel’s best hope is to weaken Hamas so severely that Fatah can take control over Gaza over. Fatah is far from perfect, but it is a better and more trustworthy negotiations partner than Hamas.