"Will the ceasefire last?"

One of the regular dog walkers asked me this a few minutes ago. I will miss these brief early morning conversations.

I know this man has thought long and hard about the situation between Israel and Hamas. He sees fault on both sides but has no doubt about which side started the most recent conflict. He has no time at all for the support our present federal government is effectively giving to Hamas.  He also blames Hamas for the death of the aid workers, not Israel. 

"They should not need aid workers there," he tells me, "They should be getting on with the job of sorting out what's going on inside their own country instead of expecting the rest of the world to do it for them. Most people who live in that place (he means Gaza) probably just want the same thing."

I have no doubt that his last statement is correct. Gaza is a war zone. It is an absolute disaster area. Hamas has been dictating what can and will be done - and most of the population is too frightened to do anything other than obey. There are individuals who are ready to resist - often with fatal consequences - but there has been no large scale uprising against Hamas.  I doubt there will ever be any such thing. You need some sort of structure for that sort of thing to occur.

It makes me realise yet again how fortunate I have been in living in two countries where there is a democracy of sorts. Neither place has a perfect system of government but they are both vastly better than being governed by a group like Hamas. 

There is no effective opposition in Gaza. The ceasefire will last as long as the leaders of Hamas think it is in their favour for it to last.