Did it all. Sreenivasan and we close with an encore look at a story about chinas moves to satisfy a growing demand for meat. Thats all ahead on tonights newshour. Major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by and with the ongoing support of these institutions and foundations. And. This program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. And by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. Sreenivasan it was a day of calm in the middle east, after eight days of punishing israeli air strikes and hamas rocket fire. Each side claimed the ceasefire was a victory, but neither was certain the truce would last. We begin with a report from alex thomson of independent Television News in gaza. Reporter party on, a show of joy, relief and unity. The flags of hamas, islamci jihad and fatah. All factions are friends today, at least in public the kalashnikovs are celebratory for now but hamas was pledging to break the ceaseifre even on day one if the blockade of gaza isnt lifted. If the palestinian will stay and the occupation in the west bank and here under israeli, gaza under siege, i dont think there is going to be a long ceasefire. One day or in a few days, a few weeks, a few months, theyre gonna break this ceasefire. By occupation he means this, areas, just one militarized crossing from gaza to israel. And israel decides what crosses goods, people. It is a complete commercial strangehold on a place desperate to be a country. Policemen able to show themselves on the streets without being targets for the first time in nine days. Fighters, too, and so many people in gaza claim their ability to fire rockets into tel aviv and jerusalem has changed everything. We went north this morning, as did so many gazans, to areas they fled in recent days. Up here in north gaza, close to the frontier with israel, people are used to the airstrikes that come, the craters that pockmark the countryside and that destroy their buildings. Lets face, its happened now every few years. So when you come here, youll find a sense of relief and immediate happiness, of course, but people are pretty skeptical about whether the peace will last. translated god willing i hope it holds but im 50 50. Theyve been breaking their promises since the prophets day. Reporter mobility scooter meets hamas flag. Ahmed atah lost both legs in the last israeli invasion. So, will a ceasefire become a peace . It could, he said, but first we need to give thanks to president morsi of egypt. Across gaza, hes something of a new hero, and theyre even impressed in israel. The egyptian president right now the best hope for peacekeeping here. Egypt was able to regain its regional role as a regional player, mediating between the israelis and the palestinians in convincing both of them to reach a ceasefire agreement. In the city, the flags, the rallies, talking up victory. In the countryside, the hamas song is, were going to bomb tel aviv. But away from politics, what about people, lives disrupted by all this . Yesterday we filmed awad and his mum sabbah taking shelter in a school in gaza city. Frightened, disorientated, a severely disabled boy caught up in all this. Today, diplomacy had delivered. Sabbah was at home with the family in atatrah. Its good that were okay. Im very happy i cant believe it, im shivering. That face, sabbah said, means hes feeling happy and safe, and with an arms round from brother mahmoud, and no sound of an explosion. Sreenivasan in israel, reserve troops began moving away from the border with gaza. Many israelis were grateful a ground operation had been averted. And a day after a bomb ripped through a bus during the tel aviv rush hour, injuring 27, israel announced it had arrested a suspect, an arab israeli man with ties to hamas. I spoke with stephanie freid, a freelance journalist in tel aviv, a short time ago. Stephanie, youre just back from southern israel, the region that was most affected by those rocket attacks. How are people now at 24 hours after the ceasefire . Well, people are venturing out for the first time. I mean, i talked to people who lad been in house for eight days. People who had stayed close to their bomb shelters inside of their homes. So that was one significant change, because ive been down in the south throughout the entire week. People were out, they were shopping. It wasnt the ghost town that the areas down south werent the ghost towns. I was in one specific town today it wasnt a ghost town that they had been all week. People are not as shaken. A lot of these people have been through this for years. I mean, theyve been experiencing this for a number of years. So theyre kind of hardened. Not even kind of. They are hardened. Theyre shellshocked, certainly. They were grateful, relieved, glad to be out getting their hair cut, doing their shopping, going about business, stocking up on some goods. At the same time, they were angry. They seemed very angry about the idea of a truce and the fact that a ceasefire was drawn up. So the mood was its not that people were celebrating, they werent happy, they were sort of hardened, theyre resigned to this and they were angry. Sreenivasan have there been measurements of Public Opinion on how this was all handled . There have been and some of the figures that came out tonight is the that 46 of israelis feel that in this conflict nobody won at all. 38 feel that Benjamin Netanyahu the Prime Minister, did a good job. 40 feel that the defense minister did a good job as well and a full 79 feel that the chief of staff they were pleased with his job in this campaign. The those seemed to be rather positive, of course, when people are looking at those numbers, looking ahead to next weeks primaries. Sreenivasan so we saw a huge massive buildup of troops along the gaza border. Whats happened to the Israeli Military now . Are they withdrawing some . They are withdrawing some. At the same time the chief of staff has put out a statement that some will remain. Were in a cautious period right now. So while troops, yes, we were seeing them leave, we were seeing the tractors pull up and pull up the tanks and the tanks were withdrawing and so were the troops, were getting ready to get out. Some will be left behind. Again, were in this period right now of waitandsee, measuring the situation. Schools are not going back to operating tomorrow. Those kids will still be staying home from school until the south. So the army is also at the same time keeping a presence down there. We dont get numbers. They wont give us numbers but we do know that while some are leaving some will be staying behind. Sreenivasan all right, for most people that dont necessarily get that this is just a cooling off period or a 72hour period where the shelling the stopped then theyre supposed to resume negotiations. Give us an idea of where those negotiations are supposed to start. Well, thats a good guess on anyones part. I spoke a political analyst this evening and he said there wont be longterm negotiations. That was his basic take on this entire situation is that four years ago there was an agreement put into place then. He said there were dozens of clauses. He said not one was adhered to. He said there wont be any longterm negotiations in terms of realtime or anything significant in moving forward. Theres not a timeline officially on that. However, the sense is that even if there would be negotiations on a longterm agreement that theres not much stock put into it, not much meaning, that this campaign was about buying time for right now and that there wont be any longterm implementation of these agreements. Sreenivasan stephanie, youve been talking to people all along the region. How much of that campaign that you mention and that election the next couple of weeks is playing into these events . Do people on the ground see this some level of this as political posturing . Well, absolutely. There were many, many people during the campaign who felt that perhaps and certainly on the flip side, on the other side palestinians and in fact palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas accused israel of creating this campaign or Going Forward with the campaign to try and sabotage the u. N. Bid the palestinian u. N. Bid and also as a ploy for election for garnering votes for upcoming elections. For the incumbent government. The fact of the matter is, when i spoke with people on the ground today in the south, these are the constituents that would primarily vote for Prime Minister netanyahu and right now theyre not very happy with him and many, many people said theyre withdrawing their vote in the coming election, that they will not be voting for his likud party. Theyre unhappy with the fact that there was a pullback from a fullscale invasion. People living in the south who, again, have been through this situation and scenario for years and years wanted to see a ground invasion. They wanted they said they wanted to see some people said they wanted to see gaza flattened. They said they wanted to seeed things taken to the end. They werent certain what that meant. When pushed to the wall, what does that mean, taking this situation to the end . They werent really certain really what that meant. But, again, this could be something that politically may not work in the Prime Ministers favor coming into this election. Sreenivasan all right, stephanie fried from tel aviv, thanks so much for joining us. Thank you. Online weve updated our slideshow of images from the middle east. Still to come on the newshour the economic troubles in greece; the shopping frenzy in the u. S. A day early; the lives of native americans and the demand for meat in china. But first, the other news of the day. In syria, rebel fighters gained more momentum in the east today. They seized a key army base at mayadeen and took control of its artillery stockpiles. To the north, Syrian Government warplanes flattened a building next to a hospital in aleppo overnight. At least 15 people were killed. The airstrikes damaged one of the last remaining sources of medical aid for civilians there. A taliban suicide bomber killed 23 people in a procession of Shiite Muslims in pakistan. The attack happened near midnight when the bomber tried to join a religious gathering in rawalpindi. At least 62 people were wounded, including six policemen. This is the latest in a string of bombings targeting shiites during their holiest month of the year. The u. S. Ambassador to the u. N. Defended her first account of the attack on the consulate in benghazi, libya. Susan rice has come under fire by critics who say she gave misleading information about the nature of the attack and the motive behind it. But at the u. N. In new york last night she said that was not the case. When discussing the attacks against our facilities in benghazi i relied solely and squarely on the information provided to me by the intelligence community. I made clear that the information was preliminary and that our investigations would give us the definitive answers. Sreenivasan the benghazi attack killed u. S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other americans. Britain announced today it is rethinking aid distribution to rwanda after a report from the u. N. Shows the african nation is backing a brutal Rebel Movement in neighboring congo. We have a report narrated by Lindsey Hilsum of independent Television News. Reporter as refugees rush out, the rebels rush in. M23 fighters hurtled into sarko today to fight congolese Government Forces which had taken back control of the town. People flee as they fled so many times before. 25 different rebel groups operate in the area, all of them and the regular army abuse civilians. Terror is never far away. Its become a way of life. Congo is a place where you kind of negotiate how much you want to be abused. What people fear mostly is when control keeps on shifting. That is why this year is such a dramatic low in the protection of civilians, cause theres a constant shift of armed groups in control by the army, so reporter in uganda yesterday, three regional leaders met to discuss the crisis, including president paul kagame of rwanda. A u. N. Report details evidence of rwandan backing for the m23, something hes denied, his words somewhat delphic. Aid agencies say 120,000 people are now on the run. Under pressure, the British Government has changed policy towards one of its closest allies and biggest aid recipients in africa. Today they said the u. N. Evidence of rwandan involvement with the rebels was credible and compelling. And would be a key factor in future aid decisions to the government of rwanda. Today the m23 rebels were on patrol in the regional capital goma. The people watched and waited. The rebels have been gathering weapons there by fleeing government soldiers. Rwanda has security concerns and economic interests in this part of congo. By taking goma, their proxies have ensured that the rwandans will negotiate for a position of strength. The withdrawal of british support, a price they may feel worth paying. Sreenivasan the u. N. Childrens agency says the violence in eastern congo has already forced 100,000 people to flee, more than half of whom are children. Americans at home and abroad celebrated the thanksgiving holiday today. President obama in a weekly address urged the country to put aside partisan differences and unite. In new york, the annual macys thanksgiving day parade wound its way through the streets of manhattan, as the area still copes from the aftermath of hurricane sandy. Elsewhere, volunteers served thanksgiving meals to needy families at homeless shelters across the country, like this one in washington, d. C. Turkey and all the trimmings were also served to u. S. Troops overseas at bases in afghanistan and kuwait. The British Broadcasting Corporation appointed a new directorgeneral in the wake of its worst crisis in years. Tony hall a former bbc news executive and currently the head of the Royal Opera House will replace george entwistle. Entwistle resigned from the post earlier this month, amid a controversy stemming from the bbcs coverage of child sex abuse. Sreenivasan next, reducing greeces big debt. The troubled country appears to be on track to get some much needed aid next week. But European Union leaders meeting at a summit this week are still unable to agree on how to cut greeces debt to a more sustainable level. Newshour economics correspondent paul solman has a behind the scenes look at the efforts to do so. Its part of his ongoing reporting on making sense of financial news. Reporter is the eurocrisis resolved . The message from europes Financial Markets over the past few months has been mostly positive. And this month greece passed a tough austerity bill, despite widespread street protests. The credit for europe moving ahead has gone to European Central bank head mario draghi, who pledged in july that his e. C. B. Would buy the debt of distressed borrowing countries to keep their Interest Rates down, keep them solvent. Investors worldwide now call him super mario, after the nintendo video game superhero. Reporter but in fact, as both knowledgeable outsiders and insiders attest, the tugofwar between europes borrowers and lenders continues and probably will, for years. Just look at the images of outsiders like foreign cartoonists, for example. Their picture of super marios newfound powers is a lot more down to earth. Thats because draghi faces steep opposition to his vow to impose supertough terms for his bond buying plan more austerity in the form of tax hikes, government pay and pension cuts and the like to be overseen by his bank and the International Monetary fund. For all the public reassurances, new austerity conditions have sparked bitter protests. In spain. In greece, twice bailed out already and yet again pleading for more slack. This protest was prompted by an october visit from german Prime Minister angela merkel, who many greeks blame for the painful cuts theyve already endured. But, back at home, merkel must contend with an antibailout public in germany a germany which must ultimately approve any europewide debt relief program, since it funds about a quarter of the European Central bank. But germany has no choice. It has to keep playing the game. Or at least thats the conviction of a key insider, new york lawyer lee buchheit. As the french say for want of better, and for fear of worse. Reporter buchheit is mr. Insider greeces chief debt negotiator. Hes managed the countrys bargaining strategy these past pinched years and is the goto guy for many a nation being muscled by its lenders. No one likes to lose money. Any creditor approached by a sovereign with a request for debt relief would accede to it only if they thought that by not giving the debt relief they stand to lose more. Reporter and your job is to convince the creditors that the borrowers cant afford to pay more. Yes. Reporter so when youre advising a country, what are you telling officials who are negotiating with their creditors . To convince its creditors first that it needs a restructuring, and second that the terms of the restructuring are what they need, not necessarily what they want. Reporter lets pause for a moment to explain, with a little help from our friends the cartoonists restructuring is just a way of saying, reduce the amount a squeezed country owes, forcing lenders, generally bondholders, to take whats euphemistically known as a haircut a reduction in the amount thats due them. For professional investors, though, the visit to the barber can be rather more drastic. But how else can a debtdrowning country stay afloat, buchheit asks. You try to return the debt stock to the point that a neutral observer in the market would say ruritania is now creditworthy again. Reporter ruritania being your. Mythical country. Reporter attorney buchheit is nothing if not careful. But for all his elusive talk of ruritania, his real client is greece. In the past year, greece has not just been weighed down by fat cat lenders, but by pannational parties like the European Union and its central bank. Theyve given money to greece to maintain the Interest Payments on its private debt, becoming not just the lender of last resort, but of life support. Any time in a corporate or sovereign