Wednesday, November 08, 2006

Stalemate in Gaza

Egyptian Complicity, Israeli Understanding -Yisrael Ne'eman

Israel's latest week long operation in Gaza will not succeed in curbing...Palestinian terror. The IDF's long-term success is very much dependent on Egyptian cooperation in halting the weapons smuggling...

[But] President Hosni Mubarak's government has absolutely no interest in curbing terrorism... The calculation is simple. Should the terrorists fail at arriving at the front lines in Gaza to do battle against the "Zionist enemy" they will simply turn around and report for duty to overthrow Mubarak's secular regime. The Gaza front is Egypt's pressure valve when confronting militant, totalitarian Islam. Shooting at the Jewish State takes pressure off Cairo.

Jerusalem prefers the low intensity conflict with the Palestinians - tunnels, Kassams and all, over the risk involved in closing down the entire Gaza terror operation and having it backfire into the Nile Delta. This is bad news for the residents of Sderot...those living in Kassam range are paying the price for avoiding further instability in Egypt...
[Mideast: On Target]

1 comment:

LHwrites said...

It's an interesting thesis. I don't know if it is true. It is possible that the terrorists are in need of having someone to fight and something to die for. It has not been convincingly shown, that as a society, a thriving economy, ownership of country, land, home and property, would not be prime motivators away from terror. Yes, some suicide bombers, including those involved in 9/11, were more educated middle class, but that does not seem to be the general rule. When you not only look at the individulas involved, but you look at the areas that the terrorists groups reside in, you see it is often poor and embattled. Economic security is a powerful inducement. But there are other factors. Iran remembers when we propped up the Shah. Iraq remembers that we armed and supported them when they fought Iran. The Taliban remembers when we armed and supported them in their fight against Russia. Then, they may all resent when we turned away from them because it no longer suited our purposes. Or in the case of Iran, the way we supported a brutal and oppressive regime, as we did in Iraq and Afghanistan. There is so much more to these problems and questions then the simple minded black and white musings of our (sinking) administration here in Washington. But when one can look outside there myopic, selfish. little world view; we can see that there are many possible reasons for the way things are, but that might create an opportunity for many possible solutions. I do not mean to coddle the terrorists. Kill the terrorists! But we had better understand the forces behind them, and that rally ordinary citizens behind them, or we will not stop terrorism from being a renewable resource.