by Jim Stephens
April 30, 2010
This also is important!
From Israel National News
Palestinian Authority terrorists over the weekend attacked workers building an underground “Iron Curtain” between Egypt and Gaza as Cairo tightens security at the border in an effort to end the weapons and drug smuggling into Gaza.
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However, tensions are rising along the Gaza-Egyptian border, as construction of the steel barrier, to be sunk under the border 30 meters deep (100 feet) and 10 kilometers (6 miles) long, continues beneath the border town of Rafiah.
The area of the border between Gaza and Egypt is honeycombed with a network of at least 100 tunnels, which do a brisk trade in all kinds of goods that are brought in from Egypt, including cars, clothing, foodstuffs and luxury items. In addition, terrorists and contraband such as light weapons, ammunition, drugs and heavier ordnance – including parts to build rockets, mortars and long-range missiles – are also “imported” through the smuggler tunnels.
Aboul Gheit: ‘Egypt’s Right to Protect Itself’
Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit has, until this weekend, adroitly sidestepped questions about the barrier. But in an interview Saturday, Aboul Gheit finally discussed it with the al-Ahram al-Arabi daily newspaper, saying, “Whether it is a wall, sensors or tapping devices… what matters is that Egyptian territory must be protected. Whoever says Egypt is imposing its control on the border, we tell them this is Egypt’s full right.”
Commentator Dr. Aaron Lerner of Independent Media Review and Analysis (IMRA), however, wrote earlier this month that the underground barrier is simply another exercise is ‘much to show about nothing.’ Lerner contends that the barrier will benefit everyone involved except Israel, because many tunnels are built deeper than the wall will extend.
Hamas: We’re Trying to Contain Terror
Following the shootings, the Hamas “Interior Minister” of Gaza’s de facto government, Fathi Hammad, claimed that Hamas is “trying” to control the gunmen. The PA-linked Ma’an news agency quoted Hammad in a phone conversation with Egyptian government officials on Saturday, after a second attack by Gaza snipers aimed at Egyptian construction workers.
Hammad repeated a comment made earlier in the day by Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum, who told the Egyptians they had less to fear from Gaza than from the “Israeli occupation.” The Hamas government, he said, “confirms that it will protect Egypt’s security.”
Both condemned Egypt’s support of what they referred to as Israel’s blockade of the region – and were rebuffed by the Egyptians. “The Palestinian cause is dear to our heart and the Egyptians have paid a heavy price defending this case,” responded Aboul Gheit in the al-Ahram al-Arabi interview. “But Egyptian territory and its security are more important than anything else.”
Israel closed its crossings into the region following its expulsion of all Jews from the region and a unilateral disengagement from Gaza in 2005. The IDF tightened the seal after the disengagement was followed by the 2006 kidnapping of IDF soldier Gilad Shalit by Hamas terrorists and increased rocket attacks on the Negev – instead of increased peace with Gaza Arabs. Shalit has remained in captivity in Gaza to this day, his whereabouts unknown and condition not verified by any independent source. (IsraelNationalNews.com)
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/135094
But Hamas does not threaten to destroy Egypt and since it does this to Israel then Israel must close all borders and contacts with Gaza
What are the forces that make Egypt break contact with Hamas?
Yet Egypt remains full of hatred for Israel as this shows:
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has charged Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu with “complicating the situation further” and throwing obstacles in the way of establishing a Palestinian Authority state. Mubarak criticized Netanyahu in interviews with Arab media following Netanyahu’s policy speech at Bar Ilan University on Sunday night.
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He flatly stated that Egypt will not support the Israeli position, which repeats the policy of previous governments in rejecting the demand of the 2002 Saudi Arabian Peace Plan for the immigration into Israel of five million Arabs claiming Israeli ancestry.
Mubarak dropped a sharp hint that violence will follow if Israel does not accept the Saudi plan. “The Middle East will be a scene of unrest if there is no comprehensive peace,” he said.
“The solution to the major problems of the Arab and Islamic worlds is through Jerusalem,” he added, referring to the Arab world’s demand that Israel surrender sovereignty over all of eastern Jerusalem, including several neighborhoods in the capital where more than 250,000 Jews live.
The entire Arab world has lambasted the Prime Minister, who until Sunday night had resisted American pressure to accept the creation of a new Arab state on the land of Judea, Samaria and Gaza.
Most of the conditions he stated are already incorporated in the American Roadmap plan or have been stated by previous governments. Critics, including former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, accused the Prime Minister of adding new terms.
Hamas called the speech “racist” for Prime Minister Netanyahu’s demand that the PA recognize Israel as a Jewish State.
PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas called on the major powers throughout the world to isolate the Prime Minister. “They must isolate and confront this policy which Netanyahu is adopting and exert pressure on him so that he adheres to international legitimacy and the Roadmap,” he said.
The wall-to-wall Arab opposition throws the ball into the court of the Western world and places U.S. President Barack Obama into a tight spot. Both the U.S. and the European Union praised the speech as a move in the right direction, but Prime Minister Netanyahu made it clear that his conditions are red lines that cannot be crossed.
His speech marked a sharp turnaround from statements by previous governments, which generally have agreed to most concessions under pressure by the American government. The PA has been used to Israel’s concessions and therefore could not accept the change in tone by Prime Minister Netanyahu, Israeli National Security Adviser Uzi Arad told Voice of Israel government radio.
“They noticed that previous Israeli governments didn’t make any demands or conditions and they had hoped to slowly get more and more concessions from Israel,” said Arad. “However, they found out that this government will stand its ground and defend Israeli vital interests.”
One of the few, if not the only, Arab voice expressing optimism was the Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Committee, the largest Arab-American advocacy group in the U.S. “If [Netanyahu] follows up on something positive, that would be significant,” said ADC president Mary Rose Oakar. “But actions speak louder than words.”
(IsraelNationalNews.com)
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has charged Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu with “complicating the situation further” and throwing obstacles in the way of establishing a Palestinian Authority state. Mubarak criticized Netanyahu in interviews with Arab media following Netanyahu’s policy speech at Bar Ilan University on Sunday night.
He flatly stated that Egypt will not support the Israeli position, which repeats the policy of previous governments in rejecting the demand of the 2002 Saudi Arabian Peace Plan for the immigration into Israel of five million Arabs claiming Israeli ancestry.
Mubarak dropped a sharp hint that violence will follow if Israel does not accept the Saudi plan. “The Middle East will be a scene of unrest if there is no comprehensive peace,” he said.
“The solution to the major problems of the Arab and Islamic worlds is through Jerusalem,” he added, referring to the Arab world’s demand that Israel surrender sovereignty over all of eastern Jerusalem, including several neighborhoods in the capital where more than 250,000 Jews live.
The entire Arab world has lambasted the Prime Minister, who until Sunday night had resisted American pressure to accept the creation of a new Arab state on the land of Judea, Samaria and Gaza.
Most of the conditions he stated are already incorporated in the American Roadmap plan or have been stated by previous governments. Critics, including former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, accused the Prime Minister of adding new terms.
Hamas called the speech “racist” for Prime Minister Netanyahu’s demand that the PA recognize Israel as a Jewish State.
PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas called on the major powers throughout the world to isolate the Prime Minister. “They must isolate and confront this policy which Netanyahu is adopting and exert pressure on him so that he adheres to international legitimacy and the Roadmap,” he said.
The wall-to-wall Arab opposition throws the ball into the court of the Western world and places U.S. President Barack Obama into a tight spot. Both the U.S. and the European Union praised the speech as a move in the right direction, but Prime Minister Netanyahu made it clear that his conditions are red lines that cannot be crossed.
His speech marked a sharp turnaround from statements by previous governments, which generally have agreed to most concessions under pressure by the American government. The PA has been used to Israel’s concessions and therefore could not accept the change in tone by Prime Minister Netanyahu, Israeli National Security Adviser Uzi Arad told Voice of Israel government radio.
“They noticed that previous Israeli governments didn’t make any demands or conditions and they had hoped to slowly get more and more concessions from Israel,” said Arad. “However, they found out that this government will stand its ground and defend Israeli vital interests.”
One of the few, if not the only, Arab voice expressing optimism was the Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Committee, the largest Arab-American advocacy group in the U.S. “If [Netanyahu] follows up on something positive, that would be significant,” said ADC president Mary Rose Oakar. “But actions speak louder than words.”
(IsraelNationalNews.com)
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