Earlier this week, the U.S. announced that it had successfully negotiated a ceasefire among various warring parties in Syria. Noting that the agreement is riddled with problems, Liel Leibovitz cites Israel’s experience with a previous American-brokered ceasefire as reason for further skepticism:
[E]ven putting aside the weakness of the specific Syria ceasefire terms, the Obama administration’s credibility with ceasefires has been, and remains, badly damaged. The reason for this precedent can be described with one name: Hadar Goldin.
Early in the morning of August 1, 2014, nearly a month into Hamas’s war on Israel, a 72-hour U.S.- and UN-brokered ceasefire took hold. Two hours into that ceasefire, Palestinian terrorists exploited the lull in the fighting to emerge into southern Israel from a Gaza attack tunnel. They immediately murdered two Israeli soldiers and abducted Goldin, almost certainly killing him as well. . . .
Now, however, more than a year after Goldin’s death, Hamas still refuses to return his body for burial in Israel, a blatant violation of international law and basic human decency alike. It’s also an embarrassment to the Obama administration, which had backed the lull that the Palestinians used to slip into Israel. . . .
If the Obama administration wants to be taken seriously as a force for diplomacy and peaceful resolution in Syria and elsewhere, it must show that it is serious about accountability, and that the warring factions currently slouching their way to the negotiations table have reason to trust that America’s word is solid. Goldin’s case is a great place to start.
Read more on Tablet: http://www.tabletmag.com/scroll/197907/want-the-syria-ceasefire-to-mean-anything-bring-back-hadar-goldin