According to US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, the United States is working on a “durable and sustainable” ceasefire between Israel and the Hamas at Gaza. This ceasefire is planned to avoid the situation where the Hamas can continue to launch rockets aimed at Israel. The air strikes that have been going on, launched by Israel, are retaliation to the rockets fired by the Hamas in the first place.

Rice said she does not plan to travel to the Middle East at the present time. Perhaps, the reason for this is because a ceasefire can happen very soon. All the protests currently happening across the globe against the bombardment of Gaza are putting tremendous pressure on Israel to stop the air strikes. The US would want to make sure that the next round of ceasefire will be impervious to a repetition of the current scenario. Hundreds have been killed and thousands wounded because of the Israeli offensive on the Hamas’ territory, some of them innocent civilians and children.

Rice has been known to plug the holes in the interventionist foreign policy of her White House boss. She did it in Iraq and is expected to do it in Gaza, too. Well, until later this month when a new president takes over Bush, and Hillary replaces her. Obama, not quite inclined to be interventionist, would want to make amends with the old US enemies for a change. Hillary, on the other hand, is about to face the Taliban as the centerpiece of Obama’s foreign policy is ending the militant insurgency in Afghanistan.

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Via Reuters