Ceasefire?

Pres. Abbas of the PA called his friend PM Olmert Sat night and offered him a ceasefire. One's immediate reaction should be that the Palestinians must be hurting, there must have been enough losses in men and materiel and enough damage to their infrastructure to cause them to shout "uncle." But, Olmert smartly accepted, because he is also hurting, he has no way of stopping the Kassams on Sderot and the Western Negev without a large scale invasion of Gaza, and this the Palestinians knew was imminently in the works unless they stop the rockets. That's why they called a temporary ceasefire now.
But, they did of course immediately break it. That's because first they have no intention of letting Israel off the hook so easily, and second because Abbas does not have complete control of his own house. Israel for its part immediately withdrew all IDF forces from Gaza back into Israel and stopped all military action. But, Islamic Jihad and al Aksa Martyr's Brigades of Fatah still fired 5 missiles into Sderot, one of which scored a direct hit on a house while the people were fortunately sheltering in the basement. For the first time that I can remember Saeb Erekat, Abbas's spokesman, admitted that the PA had violated the ceasefire agreement and promised they would do all they can to stop further violations.
The excuse given by IJ for its attack was that Israel had arrested 2 Hamas operatives in Nablus last night. But, first, the ceasefire had not come into effect yet, it was supposed to start at 6 am, and second the ceasefire explicitly only includes Gaza and does not extend to the West Bank. Erekat acknowledged these facts and said he hoped they could make a further agreement extending the ceasefire to the West Bank. Since IJ has refused to accept any ceasefire with Israel, it is hard to see how either Abbas can manage this or Israel can accept it. In order to enforce the ceasefire Abbas has finally ordered 15,000 men of the security services out into northern Gaza to stop further rocket firings. Hamas complained about this move, saying it was intended to prevent their freedom of action.
Nevertheless, the feeling in Israel is that after taking many casualties (ca. 300 in 2 months) and suffering great damage in Beit Hanun and surroundings from where the rockets are being launched, the Palestinians and their terror groups need a breather. They will use any ceasefire to prepare themselves for the next round. Surprisingly the ceasefire agreement includes stopping digging and use of tunnels, but how could anyone stop smuggling activities. They will go on, and the terrorist groups will rearm. So that next time there will be an even harder fight. Khaled Mashaal, while visiting Egypt to discuss the ceasefire and exchange of prisoners, promised Israel that they will start a new and even more costly intifada in six months. So the ceasefire is a temporary lull, while the Palestinian groups, especially Hamas, lick their wounds and prepare for the next clash in the ongoing conflict.