From Yahoo News:CAIRO, Egypt - The Gaza border crisis caused another sharp flap Thursday in Egyptian-Israeli relations, with Egypt angrily accusing Israel of trying to dump all responsibility for the troubled Gaza Strip in its lap.
It was not clear if the proposal for Israel to relinquish all control over Gaza, expressed privately by several Israeli officials and publicly by one, was serious or just an effort to test international reaction to the idea.
But Egyptian officials were fuming.
Read more ....
My Comment: 24 hours after the wall was blown up, I am slowly beginning to realize that this may have been the strategic objective of Israel in the first place. When I first read this article from the Times (Exclusive: Hamas 'Spent Months Cutting Through Gaza Wall In Secret Operation' -- Times Online) my initial reaction was why did no one try to stop them. Israeli spy planes and their intelligence services must have been aware of what has been happening for the past few months. I mean .... after a few months of seeing people with acetylene torches working on the wall .... I am sure that after a while most people knew what they were doing.
So the question arises .... why were they permitted to do what they did. In particular, why did Israel permit them to do this.
Both Captain's Quarters and ShrinkWrapped analyze this and come up with an answer that is both simple and logical. By bringing down the wall Egypt has now become de facto responsible for the distribution of aid and supplies to the million and a half residents of Gaza. They will also now be responsible for providing services such as water, electrical, and sewage, as well ..... and this will be a major sticking point .... the security of the area.
If past actions are any indication, I doubt that this is what the Egyptian Government wants. They are not equipped to accommodate the aspirations and needs of a million and half Palestinians. In addition, the problem of security .... i.e. Palestinian militants attacking Egyptian resorts, this is a problem that no one wants.
I predict that in the next few days this wall will be put back up. If not .... this is a signal of Egypt becoming a more significant player for Palestinian needs in the region ..... and being a force that Hamas and militant Islamists must now also confront.
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