Israel has once again reopened the Sufah Crossing with the Gaza Strip after closing them on Sunday to keep within the truce parameters and allowed 80 trucks in with supplies for Gazan citizens. Nahal Oz petrol station is also reopen with a limited capacity.

Since June 19, 2008 when the truce between Hamas and Israel came into effect, Israel has closed and reopened the border crossings a total of 3 times in response to isolated rocket attacks from the area aimed at the Israeli towns of Sderot and Ashkelon.

Tensions and mistrust are running on high alert on both sides including the accusations from the IDF side on Sunday stating that a Palestinian sniper shot at an Israeli farmers tractor and struck it with a single bullet. Later on, the IDF retracted this former statement and said that the tractor may have been struck with a stone – whether it was by Palestinians or not, they did not say.

Summing up a he said/she said type of situation: it all starts with a rocket attack from Gaza which leads to Israel shutting down the border crossings saying that Hamas is violating the cease-fire. Hamas retorts with the fact that Israel is truly the one who is violating the truce agreement by shutting down the border crossings which are allowing the greatly needed cargo shipments for their citizens in the Gaza Strip. Back and forth it goes daily...like watching a tennis ball soar over the net repeatedly.

Gazan Chief Khaled al-Batch claimed that

“Islamic Jihad reserves the right to respond to all Israeli violations....(we will) not take the initiative in breaking the calm.”

He later added in response to the attacks in the West Bank, that

“If the crossing points (with Gaza) do not reopen, if the siege and the aggression does not stop, the calm will go up in smoke”.

Call me crazy, but I have what seems like a logical albeit not necessarily feasible, as I am not in the government myself, solution to this.

Stop firing rockets on both sides, Islamic extremists stop smuggling arms and ammunition into Gaza, Israelis stop inciting acts of violence by not razing terrorists homes and make a universal education plan that does not teach how to discriminate upon each religion and culture.

I know that this is an ideal solution, if I forgot anything please excuse me, and would only seemingly occur in a Utopian society, but this does seem to be the logical conclusion that we can draw, correct?