Gaza militants discuss unconditional cease-fire

Hamas, PIJ, PRC debate whether they can cease firing Kassam rockets into Israel in the expectation that Israel would end retaliatory raids. The cease-fire offer is too good to reject, because it solves the immediate political problem of Kassam rocket attacks on Sderot. On other hand, even an implicit Israeli arrangement with Hamas would legitimize the group and open the way to united Fatah-Hamas government, open the West Bank to Hamas, and end the meager peace process. The cease-fire would allow Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Popular Resistance Committees, and other Palestinian guerrillas to smuggle and stock the explosives and other weapons, dig trenches, lay minefields, and prepare for the next round of confrontation with Israel.