Chronicle poll results: Hamas/Israel ceasefire

Last week, the Chronicle asked its readers in an online poll the following question: “How long do you think the Hamas/Israel ceasefire will hold?” Of the 236 people who responded, 57% said less than a month; 32% said 1-6 months; 2% said 6 months to a year; 6% said longer than a year; and 3% had no opinion. Comments were submitted by 64 people. A few follow.

I think it will hold because Hamas is weakened and doesn’t have support like before.

As much as I would like to live in hope, I’m too much of a realist to trust either side.

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It depends entirely on the international will to enforce it. Will the Arab world own their part in the problem or will they look away as Hamas rearms? Will the U.N. acknowledge its gross failings and bias and facilitate others taking the lead, or will they continue to do as commanded by the anti-Israel faction? Will the U.S. do the hard work or just claim victory and glory and move on? Will anybody actually disarm and expel the terrorists and reform jihadist schools? I hope, but I am skeptical.

Hamas is already playing games and has indicated it has no intention of disarming or disbanding.

There is too much history, animosity and hatred for this to truly last. While Hamas may have triggered everything, Israel has a lot of blame here, too.

I don’t trust Hamas to abide by many of the parts of the agreement, especially returning the deceased and disarming. They are already murdering their own citizens.

With multiple Arab nations on board with the ceasefire, this may be the first step to lasting peace in the Middle East.

Hamas is committed to killing Jews and destroying Israel; I don’t see that changing anytime soon.

Iran will do everything do make sure conflict and death continue, and tunnels continue to be built.

As long as Netanyahu is in charge, there will not be peace.Hamas has said it wants to destroy Israel, so I was really surprised they agreed to a ceasefire to begin with. I doubt that they’ll disarm, and I expect them to begin their fight again soon. They’ve won over the public, which blames Israel for the starvation of Gaza residents, so, from their perspective, why should they stop now?

If they can’t give back the deceased hostages remains, then how can they keep the peace? This was a huge part of the bargaining.

Israel would have signed just about anything to get all of the hostages back. It had no choice. But the result is an agreement that does little except buy time for both sides to rearm. PJC