Hamas: Israel must open Rafah crossing for truce talks to succeed

[Scurrilous]

<snip>

"Hamas spokesman Ismail Radwan on Monday accused Israel of putting obstacles in front of Egyptian efforts to achieve a ceasefire between Israel and the militant group by refusing to open the Rafah border crossing with Egypt.

"The Rafah border must be opened as part of the calm," Radwan said, repeating Hamas' demand that Egypt open the crossing if Israel doesn't.

Although the Rafah crossing lies on the Gaza-Egypt border, the passage has been closed because Europeans monitoring the crossing require Israeli security clearance to operate. That clearance has not been given since Hamas took over Gaza.

The Hamas statement came after Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told a Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee meeting that Gaza's Rafah border crossing with Egypt will not be opened for the time being, according to a participant at the meeting.

Hamas wants the crossing reopened and a role in monitoring the border - a concession that would be tantamount to recognizing the Islamic group's rule of Gaza. Egypt has rejected that demand, and called for a return to the 2005 agreement that gives Israel and EU monitors a supervisory role."

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[Igel]

1. I've seen reports where Hamasians use "the calm" almost

as a technical term.

I've seen other instances where the reporter chooses a less common translation in order to avoid a term that would raise red flags in English.

So I wonder what the Arabic word is that he's using for "the calm", and how it's usually put in English.

My copy of Wehr gives "hudna" as "calm(ness), quietness, peace, transquillity, stillness; pause, intermission, cessation; truce, armistice." "Calm" has no baggage, no implication of possible religious restrictions, no history; "hudna" does. However, just a few lines down is another word for "calm", _huduun_.

[Vegasaurus]

2. Hamas is not in much of a position to make demands. nt