Full Cessation of Hostilities or Immediate Cease Fire. What is the difference?

Question

While the US and UN piss around with words, the killing continues. 10 reservists now killed as they prepare to go into Lebanon. How does this help peace? We need a ceasefire and peace period.

Steve W, Why are people like you so disingenious. You appear to be an educated person but why is your reasoning so warped. Have Israel been sending flower encrusted missiles over to Lebanon or 500lb wreakers of death and destruction. I am sick to the back teeth of supposedly educated people with warped views. May I recommend you bear in mind Calvin Coleridge's famous quote of 'educated derelicts.

Answer 1

we spend 20 hours a day watching TV, waiting to hear about an immediate Cease fire. France was working on it , and nothing happens. then it is UN turn, and nothing happens. tomorrow The Arabs leaders will discuss it again...all this to give Israel more time to destroy and kill. i don't say to fight Hezbollah because all Lebanon from north to south is attacked... i am telling u they are planning to destroy our country in the name of fighting terror.

Answer 2

Full cessation of hostilities is an end to the "war" and a posture of "permanent" peace.

Immediate cease fire is a temporary measure, a sort-of "time out" to the fighting, with the presumption that the fighting will resume at some future point if negotiations break down.

The difference is the status of the war after the agreement is enacted, not the exact timing of the enactment of the agreement.

If you are Lebanon, of course you want a cease fire immediately to stop the deaths of civilians and damage to your infrastructure. If you are Hezbollah, you want a cease fire so you can reorganize your troops and regroup. If you are Israel, you want to finish off Hezbollah before they get a chance to take a breath. Therefore, your notion that we need an immediate cease fire is simplistic and whether that is the best option depends upon your point of view.

If you had a rocket land in your back yard with the promise for more to come, you might not see the immediate need for a cease fire. However, if you are an innocent Lebanese citizen whose house was just blown up, you may think it's stupid that anyone would question it.

Answer 3

To me as a lay man they mean the same thing, but when you take a more critical look and judging from the arguments put forward by the politicians, it does not make sense to sign a hasty ceasefire without working out a political strategy that will address fundamental issues that led to the hostilities.

The loss of life is unfortunate, but there has been several hasted ceasefires that produced no lasting result - the first one signed during the war for independence on June 11 1948 lasted less than three weeks, and counting from then, to Arafats Intefadas, and to today's Hamas and Hizzbullah illegal border crossing and kidnapping that fouled the confrontation, there has been tonnes and tonnes of hasted ceasfires that did not resolve the issues.

I guess time has come for the Arabs to wake up from the position since the state of Israel was born starting with the UN resolution of 1947 which established the Palestinian Partition Plan and subsequently the birth of State of Israel. Do not forget that the same resolution established a palestinian state to live side by side with Israel, but I guess the Arab conspiracy twarted that plan and ended in the state we are in today.

I do not see any moral, religious or political justification for a state, people or group to call for the extermination of another state, people or group. It is both immoral, illegal and unjustified and whatever fuels such a call is both crude and evil!

Answer 4

First, immediate cease fire if imposed on the warring countries by the UN, they are obliged to stop attacking each other. Whether they really follow or not is a different matter!
Secondly, full cessation of hostilities implies complete stoppage of the fight and hatred between the countries involved.
The success of the efforts at various levels to stop the war depends on the sincerity of all parties working in that direction. It is needless to put emphasis on the obvious fact that US is apparently not very keen on getting an early cease fire imposed on all parties concerned. They seem to be having a hidden agenda and it appears to be a planned attack on Iran and possibly Syria as they are suspected to be directly supporting Hezbollah. But should this be true and materialise, it would be yet another suicidal policy on the part of USA as any such premptive attacks would bring condemnation from not only all Arab and Muslim countries but from all over the world. And, US would be forced to end their presence in Iraq instantly as it would be impossible for them to control the civil war there which is already in its early stages!
China and Russia in particular will be pretty upset and firm in not co-operating with the US line of action and may decide to step in in support of Iran and Syria.
Now, the 64 million dollar question is, will all this possibly lead to a global war for the third time?

Answer 5

Full cessation of hostilities is philosophy and moral ,while immediate cease fire is putting the talking in action .
The Middle East conflict is entering into a new and crucial phase ,it is a real crisis ,but as the Chinese word for "crisis" consist of two words danger and opportunity ,while the crisis has aggravated ,so is the chance for peace from my third eye perspective .

The new conditions such created , is a real test of wisdom and their critical and strategic thinking ,posing real challenge of the capacity and shrewdness of the world leaders(perhaps that explained why the US and France took such a long time to come up with the appropriate wording for the UN security council resolution "to end hostilities" by giving ample of space for the immediate parties to maneuver) ,eventually it can be hell or heaven,as peace and war ,victory and failure is a margin away.

Good luck to UN security council and blessing to mission of UN multi-national peace keeping force ,as political will among global community gaining momentum ...

Answer 6

1. Full cessation of hostilities: an impossible dream. It means disarming Hezbollah, forcing everybody to recognize Israel's right to exist, giving Palestinians their right to exist as a nation (Israel and the Arabs don't want that), etc, and all in the matter of weeks.
2. Immediate cease fire: attainable. It means that Israel will immediately stop its military campaign, and then all the parties involved will sit at the table to negotiate.

Answer 7

An immediate ceasefire just stops the firing. I would think that cessation of hostilities constitutes an end to warring.

Answer 8

The cease fire was rejected by Lebanon because they didn't like the terms the UN set.

Answer 9

...'prepare to go into Lebanon'. You are just quoting and that's pissing around with words, too. BTW we need a ceasefire.

Answer 10

You stir up more emotion than logic. It's easy to sit there wringing ones hands but it doesn't solve the problem. There is too much of this going on.