Israeli Press Considers Implications of Egypt-Gaza Crossing Developments

Jan 25, 04:37 AM

Running The Show

A commentary by Avi Issacharoff and Amos Ha'rel in the left-of- centre, independent daily of record Tel Aviv Ha'aretz (Internet version-WWW) in English entitled "Running the Show" says: "In destroying the wall separating the Palestinian and Egyptian sides of Rafah, Hamas chalked up a real coup. Not only did the organization demonstrate once again that it is a disciplined, determined entity, and an opponent that is exponentially more sophisticated than the Palestine Liberation Organization. It also took the sting out of the economic blockade plan devised by Israel's military establishment, an idea whose effectiveness was doubtful from the beginning but whose potential for international damage was not.

"Israel, Egypt and the Palestinian [National] Authority are now forced to find a new joint border control arrangement, one that will probably depend on the good graces of Hamas. If the PNA is indeed interested in taking responsibility for the border crossings, as Prime Minister Salam Fayyad has declared, it will have to negotiate with Hamas even though President Mahmoud Abbas is trying to avoid that at any cost. The other option - to leave the border untended - is even worse."

Opportunity in Gaza

The editorial of the same paper entitled: "Opportunity in Gaza" writes: "Now that the barrier is down, it is hard to imagine that the situation in Gaza can be restored to its previous state. Even if Egypt closes the border again, it will be forced to reopen it, at least partially, whenever there is pressure. The Egyptians cannot maintain permanently the total closure that they decided on a year ago, after Hamas came to power in the Strip.

Ha'aretz writes that President Husni Mubarak has made it clear that he will permit Gazans to buy food and that he cannot shut his eyes to their suffering and that an Egyptian Foreign Ministry spokesman said the border will be closed again but refuted Israeli claims that Egypt is responsible for what happens in Gaza. The Israeli Foreign Ministry, on the other hand, issued a statement that was the opposite of the Egyptian claims and stated that Egypt is responsible for ensuring that the border operates properly.

"The contradictory announcements by the Israeli and Egyptian foreign ministries demonstrate that both parties feel that a definitive, perhaps strategic, change is taking place in the Strip and want to restore the situation to what it had been. It is doubtful this can be done. The closure of Gaza did not stop the Qassams, but now there are worrying signs that it could damage Israel's relations with Egypt unless both countries' leaderships are not careful in their responses.

The editorial says the crisis in Rafah was apparently not foreseen by Israel's policymakers. "Now, after it has happened, it is worth using the crisis to set policies that are more creative than assassinations and starvation and to try to avoid becoming fixated on the usual, predictable responses and on laying blame in all directions." It says the Egyptians could now become "the unwitting leaders in finding an agreed-on solution. This could be the time to assert joint responsibility for the border crossings, with the participation of the Palestinian government and international organizations."

Saying that Hamas used the closure to "create sympathy for the people of Gaza," it says the destruction of the border barrier is also perceived as "a legitimate prison break," and that "a statesmanlike response is now needed to turn the crisis into an opportunity."

"Because none of the players is on its own and the parties' interests are interwoven, one can hope that Egypt and Israel, with help from the international community, can create new facts on the ground. If there is a moderate leadership that can be relied on, and if Mubarak and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas are part of it, then this is the moment they need to cooperate and put themselves in the forefront.

Proving the Egyptian Alternative

An analysis by Ya'aqov Katz in Jerusalem The Jerusalem Post, a right-of-centre English-language independent daily, entitled "Proving The Egyptian Alternative," says that "without even knowing it, Egypt helped Israel on Wednesday to complete the disengagement from the Gaza Strip.

"While the 2005 withdrawal included the evacuation of Israeli military personnel and settlers from the Palestinian territory, Israel and Gaza have remained interlocked ever since due to the Palestinian dependency on Israel for electricity, food, medical supplies and fuel.

"Egypt's decision to open the Rafah crossing allowed around 300,000 Palestinians - almost a quarter of the entire population of Gaza - to enter Egypt and stock up on goods made scarce by the blockade Israel imposed on the Strip following last week's Kassam bombardment of Sderot.

"While Egyptian President Husni Mubarak said he opened the crossing for Gazans since they were 'starving due to the Israeli siege,' what he did proved to the world that his country is perfectly capable of caring for the Palestinians when it comes to food and medical care."

Much More Than a Border Problem

An analysis by Calev Ben-David in The Jerusalem Post entitled "Much More Than a Border Problem," says: Hamas remains committed to using the Strip as "a forward base for the forces of radical Islam to attack Israel with impunity, and in doing so, to undermine any chance its rivals for Palestinian leadership in Ramallah have to come to a negotiated two-state settlement with the Zionist entity."

He says that to achieve those goals, "Hamas must retain the ability to continually improve its strategic position vis-a-vis Israel by bringing in more advanced weaponry to Gaza - mines, antitank weapons, longer range and more powerful rockets, and even surface-to-air missiles. It must be able to send its fighters out for professional training in such places as Iran and Syria and then bring them back in. And it must maintain a flow of cash to thwart the European Union boycott on direct financial aid to Hamas institutions, especially its security apparatus."

He says "the key" to all this is for Hamas "to control Gaza's southern border crossings with Egypt, and to thwart any attempt by an outside party to deprive it of the freedom to move weapons, cash and personnel through the Philadelphi Corridor."

Ben-David writes that "if Israel is forced to tackle this situation alone, there can be no doubt that at some point it will have to launch a military operation to resecure Gaza's southern border, and perhaps re-occupy the Philadelphi Corridor, at least temporarily," going on to argue that "the party who should bear the primary responsibility for maintaining the integrity of the Gaza- Sinai border is, of course, Egypt. Unfortunately, its record over the past two years in this regard has been unsatisfactory, if not dismal."

Ben-David writes that "Hamas demonstrated an ability to outmanoeuvre Mubarak, by manipulating the power of Arab public opinion to pressure him into opening the gates. Egypt no longer appears able to control the situation along the border by itself - and new suggestions that they could perhaps do so with the aid of the PNA are risible."

He says the only other player in this game "is the international community, especially the US and EU, who together have invested so much in the current peace negotiations. Their input so far has been minimal, with the EU observers who were put in place at the Rafah crossing having proved ineffective even before they were pulled away when Hamas took over Gaza.

"One hopes it doesn't take a war in Gaza before all of the parties seriously interested in peace and stability realize that a much more serious effort is needed to secure the Gaza Egypt border. But make no mistake about it - as long as Hamas calls the shots on Gaza's southern border, the threat to Israel will grow, and the peace process will likely find itself facing barriers far more insurmountable than those now in the Philadelphi Crossing."

The Real Disengagement From Gaza

In a 800-word commentary entitled "The Real Gaza Disengagement," on page 7 of the independent, centrist, largest circulation Hebrew- language paper Yediot Aharonot, its military commentator Alex Fishman writes that the "invasion" into Egypt marks Gaza's true disengagement from Israel.

He says that at first Israeli officials were angry at Egypt over letting thousands of Gazans pour into Sinai and viewed at as "yet another Egyptian slap in the face." "They did the same trick to us again: We exert pressure in order to weaken Hamas while they sabotage our strategy and close deals with Hamas behind our back," he quotes Israeli officials as saying.

However, he says that by evening the mood in Israel started to change. "Some senior security officials started to like the situation. This is an exceptional opportunity to shift responsibility for the Gaza Strip to Egypt. Let them provide food, electricity, water, and fuel. The wet Israeli dream may come true."

Fishman says "Israel has been presented with a golden opportunity for diplomatic gains: Yesterday, in fact, was the beginning of the real disengagement from Gaza."

He writes that Hamas "caused an absolute and complete disconnection between the Gaza economy and the West Bank economy, ahead of the emergence of two separate Palestinian entities. The moment huge quantities of goods entered the Strip without coordinating it with Israel, all duty agreements were in fact breached. From now on, Gazans would not be able to export even a matchbox to Israel or to the West Bank."

He says "yesterday it was Egypt's turn to fall into the trap laid by one of the most sophisticated productions ever seen in the Middle East: Hamas wrote, directed, and produced it in conjunction with the Muslim Brothers and with their main channel - al-Jazeera. The target audience: The Arab world, Israel, the United Nations, and Europe."

Sources: as listed

(c) 2008 BBC Monitoring Middle East. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved. Israeli Press Considers Implications of Egypt-Gaza Crossing Developments
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