The propaganda war begins to shift

It has taken almost three weeks, but the propaganda war is finally beginning to tilt marginally in favour of Israel. As I previously noted, the BBC has reported the pro-Israeli demonstration held in London this past weekend, and now I see, more shockingly, that Al Jazeera English has given air time to an Israeli official to outline Israel's position. France 24 too is reporting the diplomatic obstacles Israel is facing in ending its offensive.

Hezbollah claims no responsibility for the rocket attacks launched against Israel from Lebanon. It's unlikely that any such attacks would occur without at least their knowledge and consent. The Egyptian ceasefire proposal is fair enough. Let us remember that it is Hamas that is failing to meet the criteria. The group is opposed to an open-ended truce and to the presence of a multi-national monitoring force on the Gaza-Egyptian border. These points should illustrate well Hamas's own responsibility for prolonging the offensive against Gaza. This of course is in Israel's ideological interest - Hamas now clearly has Gazan blood on its hands. If the organisation was sincere, one should imagine that it would jubilantly welcome a multi-national monitoring force. More so, reconciliation between Hamas and Fatah, the party led by Yasser Arafat's successor and Palestinian Authority president, Mahmoud Abbas seems improbable.