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Sunday 27 May 2012

The war against Israel

So the inevitable has now happened. Less than two weeks after Hamas breached the security barrier between Gaza and Egypt, thus facilitating the free flow of advanced weaponryincluding long-range rockets, anti-tank missiles and anti-aircraft missiles from Egypt into Gaza and of terrorists from Gaza into Egypt, and one day after Egypt ‘resealed’ that border, two human bomb terrorists have struck the southern Israeli town of Dimona and murdered one woman and critically injured another.* It was intended to be far worse: the second bomber was prevented from detonating himself only by the quick thinking of Kobi Mor, a police officer from an elite unit who happened to be on the scene. The Jerusalem Post reports:

He shot the terrorist in the head, and when the latter in his last breath still tried to press the detonator button, shot him four more times and killed him. Mor managed to kill the terrorist before he could explode and without hitting his explosive belt, thus preventing a much more devastating attack.

The bombers came across the porous border with Egypt; they were from the al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade, affiliated to the Fatah party of the visionary of peace Mahmoud Abbas — who condemned the bombing but only after condemning an earlier Israeli anti-terrorist raid in the West Bank. Meanwhile the BBC, with its unfailing capacity to distort and belittle the war against Israel, describes today’s atrocity as

Rare suicide bombing hits Israel.

Rare? It's had a brief respite in recent months from completed atrocities thanks mainly to the reviled security barrier, that's all. But the attempts are unrelenting -- and now the defences have been breached. Only last Saturday, two other human bomb terrorists were intercepted by Egypt; and there have been other attempts. As Amos Harel in Haaretz records:

Hani and Rami Hamdan, the two brothers from Gaza caught on Saturday wearing explosive belts in Sinai by the Egyptian security forces, four kilometers west of Rafah, were not operating independently. Just a day earlier the Egyptians arrested 15 armed Palestinians in Sinai, 12 of whom were members of Hamas. Last week, another cell of five Palestinians was arrested near the Taba crossing, and explosive belts were found in their possession.

Meanwhile Hamas has consolidated its strategic victory in wrongfooting and running rings round both Egypt and Israel. As Harel writes:

Cairo now finds itself facing conflicting Palestinian pressure. Hamas is demanding to set up an orderly crossing through Rafah. If Cairo refuses, the Hamas policemen will ensure that Palestinians sneak into Sinai, like they did Sunday. Hamas wants larger supplies of fuel and electricity from Egypt. This is also something that Egypt will find it difficult to oppose, since the organization enjoys public support in Egypt, where it is regarded as the Palestinian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood.

However, if Egypt agrees to Hamas' demands, it will come into conflict with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, who is opposed to any compromises with the Islamic organization, and to tensions with the Americans. Cooperation with Hamas in opening the Rafah crossing means a perpetuation of the Hamas rule in Gaza and a deepening of the rift between Fatahland in the West Bank and Hamastan in the Gaza Strip.

On the face of it, Israel may find some satisfaction at finally seeing Egypt drawn into the Gaza quagmire. But the situation is not a zero-sum game in which a loss for Cairo is an advantage for Jerusalem. Gaza has remained an Israeli problem.

And for all of us.

* UPDATE Although there were initial claims by the al Aqsa martyrs' brigade that it carried out the bombing and that the bombers came across the Egptian border into Israel, Hamas now claims that it was responsible and the bombers came from Hebron and entered Israel where there is no security barrier in the south. This is not yet confirmed. This confusion in itself presents a fresh security risk for Israel as as result of the breach of the Egyptian barrier, as Amos Harel writes in Tuesday's Haaretz:

The explanation for the confusion is not at all reassuring for Israel: It seems a number of different organizations have all sent terrorists at the same time to the Negev. It is likely that those who sent the terrorists do not have continuous contact with them, and therefore they do not know if those who carried out the attack are actually their men. Therefore, if the Egyptians have not intercepted all of these groups, more terror attempts are to be expected via Sinai.

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