Hamas agrees to cease-fire, declares victory

Yes, you read that correctly. Hamas and Israel have agreed to a cease-fire, and afterwords Hamas declared itself the winner of this little war. Huh? What? They just got their backsides handed to them, and they're declaring victory. Riiiiight.From the J-Post:

In a speech broadcast on Hamas television on Sunday night, Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh said the Palestinians had achieved a historical and strategic victory over Israel, and claimed that Israel's military operation in the Gaza Strip had failed.

The Hamas leader repeated the terror organization's demand for a complete Israeli withdrawal from the Strip, and for the opening of the border crossings.

Haniyeh promised that Hamas would give aid to Palestinian families whose relatives were killed or injured during the war, and said Israeli leaders should be tried for war crimes.

He went on to say Hamas's decision to declare a truce on Sunday was "wise and responsible."

Meanwhile, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called Hamas leader in Syria Khaled Mashaal and congratulated him on the "great victory" the Palestinians had achieved over the IDF, the Iranian IRNA news agency reported on Monday morning.

According to the report, Ahmadinejad said that this was "just the beginning of the victory, which will be completed with patience."

The Iranian president reportedly said the victory would be complete once Israel withdraws its forces from the Gaza Strip, lifts the siege and opens the border crossings, and when Islamic countries "break off contacts with the Zionist regime and its sponsors."

So the IDF goes in, virtually dismantles Hamas, kills several key leadership figures, and Hamas wins? And the Iranians think Hamas won, too? See, we're not the only nation with people who like to rewrite history just after it's unfolded for all to see.

Hamas didn't win one damn thing. At best they've bought themselves time to rebuild and rearm, and to that make no mistake -- they will rearm. We will go through this again, and sooner than most expect. Hamas isn't turning over a new leaf. They're still going to harass Israel.

If I were in Olmert's shoes, I would have flat-out refused to the cease-fire. No deal. No deals would be entertained until all the animals in Gaza were killed.

Both Iran and Hamas lost this little war. Iran lost even more than Hamas did when one of their elite units was annihilated by the IDF. That unit had been trained in Iran and Syria by the IRGC, and they were even deadlier than the Hamas animals. It took the IDF little time to wipe the entire group out. So Iran's got to jump on the "we won" bandwagon to save face. No one will believe them, or Hamas, for that matter because the IDF was able to get news reports out -- past the MSM -- showing who really won this dust-up.

Publius II