On this night, after months and months of bitter, horrific killing and maiming, there was a most beautiful silence. Across the barbed-wire entanglements the machine-guns and artillery lay resting in the cold mud. Soon the Brits saw some Germans standing unarmed in front of the trenches. They shouted, "No shoot!" And after a while, the Brits left their trenches and met up with their enemy in no man's land.

The next thing was unbelievable: they began to joke, swap and share gifts, and even played football with each other. Today, more than 94 years later, we can hardly believe that there was a time when even enemies could meet in common ground and display goodwill toward the other.

Yes, it was short-lived and the gruesome business of destroying each other resumed unabated with hundreds of thousands of deaths.

Why is it unbelievable today? Certainly one can imagine Israelis meeting with a civilized enemy and exchanging cigarettes and gifts during a truce. But the enemy and the Islamic threat the western world now faces has no regard for human life, decency, or the rules of engagement. We are not in a clash of civilizations: we are in a clash of the civilized with the uncivilized.

Hamas for example uses Red Cross trucks to ferry weapons and supplies from one area to another; UNRWA now concedes that the school Hit in Gaza employed Islamic Jihad members:

Winds of Jihad Blog, Now They Admit it: U.N. Agency That Runs School Hit in Gaza Employed Hamas and Islamic Jihad Members

The United Nations agency that administers a school in Gaza where dozens of civilians were killed by Israeli mortar fire last week has admitted to employing terrorists to work at its Palestinian schools in the past, has no system in place to keep members of Hamas or Islamic Jihad off its payroll, and provides textbooks to children that contain hate speech and other incendiary information.

When Israel calls up residents to leave a building because it houses missiles, Hamas forces the residents up to the roof, knowing that Israel will not purposely target civilians. So Israel had to develop a method to scare the residents off the roof:

Elder of Ziyon, Knock, knock - another example of Free Gaza/Hamas propaganda

A new Israeli weapon, meanwhile, is tailored to the Hamas tactic of asking civilians to stand on the roofs of buildings so Israeli pilots will not bomb. The Israelis are countering with a missile designed, paradoxically, not to explode. They aim the missiles at empty areas of the roofs to frighten residents into leaving the buildings, a tactic called “a knock on the roof.”

While Israel goes out of its way to save Gaza lives, Hamas can't do enough to ensure the most number of Gaza casualties. Hamas does not want to win a war militarily but politically, hoping that there will be enough morons crying over spilt Palestinian blood that Israel will be forced into a perpetual series of cease-fires until Hamas has the capability to hurl missiles into the very heart of Israel.

So Hamas does not abide truce agreements. Instead of using a truce to take care of wounded or to dispense humanitarian aid, they use the time to rebuild their tunnels and to rearm. During any truce they continue to shell Israeli civilian targets. As for dispensing aid:

Jerusalem Post, 13 Jan 2009, Hamas raids aid trucks, sells supplies

Hamas on Monday raided some 100 aid trucks that Israel had allowed into Gaza, stole their contents and sold them to the highest bidders.
...
Since the beginning of Operation Cast Lead, the IDF has facilitated the transfer of close to 900 trucks into the Gaza Strip with over 20,000 tons of basic foods and medical supplies.

There are idiot Jews who want Israel to negotiate with Hamas as if there were some common humanity between Hamas and the Western World. Wild animals take better care of their young. Here's a little bit of Gaza humor:

Q. What's the difference between a Palestinian child and a big rock?
A. Hamas will never hide behind a big rock.

Q. What's the difference between an innocent dead Jewish child and a dead Hamas soldier?
A. The BBC, CNN, and Reuters will report that the Hamas soldier was actually a purposely targeted innocent woman or child. As for the dead Jewish child: What dead Jewish child?

Resources: Brown, Malcolm and Shirley Seaton. Christmas Truce: The Western Front December 1914 (Pan Grand Strategy Series) London: Trans-Atlantic Publications, 1984.

Weintraub, Stanley. Silent Night: The Story of the World War I Christmas Truce New York: The Free Press, 2001.

The Christmas Truce (History Channel) DVD

kinnethmont.co.uk, The Princess Mary 1914 Christmas Gift

In November 1914, an advertisement was placed in the national press inviting monetary contributions to a 'Sailors & Soldiers Christmas Fund' which had been created by Princess Mary, the seventeen year old daughter of King George V and Queen Mary. The purpose was to provide everyone wearing the King's uniform and serving overseas on Christmas Day 1914 with a 'gift from the nation'.

The response was truly overwhelming, and it was decided to spend the money on an embossed brass box, based on a design by Messrs Adshead and Ramsey. The contents varied considerably; officers and men on active service afloat or at the front received a box containing a combination of pipe, lighter, 1 oz of tobacco and twenty cigarettes in distinctive yellow monogrammed wrappers. Non-smokers and boys received a bullet pencil and a packet of sweets instead. Indian troops often got sweets and spices, and nurses were treated to chocolate. Many of these items were despatched separately from the tins themselves, as once the standard issue of tobacco and cigarettes was placed in the tin there was little room for much else apart from the greeting card.
...

Contents of gift boxes issued to British Soldiers.
Smokers: The embossed brass box, a pipe, an ounce of tobacco, a packet of cigarettes (20), a tinder lighter or one of the miscellaneous articles supplied in place thereof, a Christmas card and a picture of HRH.
Non-Smokers: The embossed brass box, a packet of acid tablets, a khaki writing case, a Christmas card and a picture of HRH.

A Daily Mail article on the 1914 Princess Mary box can be read here [Courtesy uk4u.com].