Baird says cautiously optimistic about ceasefire between Israel, Hamas

OTTAWA – Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird says he’s cautiously optimistic about the ceasefire now in effect between Israel and Hamas.

Baird says he welcomes the efforts of Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi, who helped broker the deal.

But the minister lays the blame for the fighting on Hamas, which he says is a terrorist group that has fired hundreds of rockets into Israel in recent months.

He says he differentiates between Hamas and the Palestinian people and the Palestinian authorities in the West Bank.

Baird says it’s not time for moral relativism between a terrorist organization, Hamas, and a democracy trying to defend itself.

The Harper government has repeatedly said it stands with Israel in the conflict.