1.

Hamas announces a ceasefire and calls for dialogue and negotiation to resolve the conflict with state of Israel. The government of Israel responds like this:

The minister in charge of the security forces says he is “skeptical” and that “Hamas kills to impose its will and therefore there can be no dialogue with it. The state’s response to it will be ‘no, no, no’, over and over again”. He also says that “not a comma, not an iota”, of the government’s anti-terrorist policies would change as a result of the ceasefire announcement.

Another minister says, “There’s nothing positive in the [ceasefire] statement.”, and that it’s “a lost opportunity.”

For his part the head of the Israeli police officers trade union warns the government against falling into the trap set for it by the terrorists and says that Hamas  only made the statement because “… it can’t murder because the pressure it’s under from the police.”

Now imagine the reaction from the international community.

2.

The Basque terrorist group ETA called a ceasefire on Monday. The quotes above are my translation of remarks made in response to the announcement by: Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba, Spain’s Interior Minister and the man with prime responsibility for the fight against terrorism,  José Blanco, Development Minister and Vice Secretary-General of the ruling PSOE party and José María Benito, spokesman for the  Spanish police trade union.

You can find the stories from which I took the quotes here, here and here.