Unilateral ceasefire

A few minutes ago, the "two Ehuds" PM Olmert and Defense Minister Barak announced that with the receipt of a letter from several European leaders -- France (Sarkozy), Germany (Merkel), Great Britain (Brown) and Italy (Berisconi)-- agreeing to assist Egypt in preventing Hamas was rearming via its tunnel system, Israel has announced it will unilaterally commence a ceasefire as of early this morning at 2:00 am (Israel time).

While on one hand, I'm pleased that hostilities are over--assuming Hamas ceases to fire rockets into Israel (which it did shortly before the official announcement was made)-- and that the political process can begin to create a new reality on the ground, on the other hand, I strongly wonder if (a) it'll work, (b) it wasn't caving in to international pressure (from the international community including the personal entreaties of the UN Secretary General) and the negative world media and (c) if all (or even most) of the goals were achieved.

At the end of the day, Gilad Shalit is still in captivity. Hamas still has the wherewithal to fire rockets into Israel beyond the Gaza border region. Israel will be vilified for damaging Gaza and the large number of civilian causalities.

It was a no-win situation and now with Hamas' ability to spin its situation and Fatah/Abbas/ Palestinian Authority to exercise any real authority I'm not convinced Israel achieved a Pyrrhic victory.

We'll see and more to come later as the dust truly settles.