Israel rejected truce offer from Hamas in 1997

Efraim Halevy, a former agent for the Mossad, Israel's spy agency, has written a memoir of his experiences. The UK's Guardian picks up some of the story:

In 1997, Halevy reveals, Israel received via Jordan the offer of a 30-year truce from the Islamic resistance movement Hamas, now in charge of the Palestinian Authority.

Considering Hamas had by that point carried out a series of devastating suicide bombings targeting Israeli civilians, and destroyed what little was left of the Oslo peace process, this was quite something. It chimes with current discussion of whether a "hudna" (a long-term ceasefire) - the subject of red-hot exchanges between the two sides and their supporters - is possible or desirable.

The Hamas offer was neither given high priority nor properly explored, and may, Halevy says, have been no more than a trial balloon. But the extraordinary thing is that it was made just days before Mossad agents tried to assassinate Khaled Meshal, the organisation's Damascus-based leader. Cornering him in the Jordanian capital, Amman, they sprayed poison into his ear, but were captured and forced to fly in a doctor to administer an antidote. It was an episode that made the world's most ruthless spy agency look like a combination of the Keystone Cops and Austin Powers.