A Daily Analysis
By Marc Schulman
January 24, 2008 Implications on Egypt/ Gaza Border Opened
The fallout from the fall/destruction of the Gaza/Egyptian border fence continues. It seems that Hamas had been working on destroying the fence for many months. Its activities were well known in Rafah, the divided border town, where the fence was destroyed. Unfortunately the one group that seems not to have known was the IDF. Egypt claims that it warned Israel of this scenario two weeks ago. Israeli commentators claim the major loss, is the fact that Israel has closed the ability to use the opening or closing of the border as a negotiating point in any talks, direct or indirect, with Hamas.
There is an immediate warning that has gone out to all Israelis in Sinai to return home immediately. There is intelligence that armed Hamas terrorists have used the open border to enter Sinai and plan attacks on Israelis. The other fear is that the Israeli-Egyptian border in the Negev is open and not well protected, so a great fence around Gaza is not going to help if terrorists can just enter Egypt and attack from there.
The events of the last few days have also clarified a little about Al Jezeera, the Arab TV network. Nobody ever claimed that Al Jezeera was pro-Israel, but its actions in the last two days, clearly working with Hamas to give it as big a public relations victory as possible, has made it clear what side of the Arab divide the network is on. Al Jezeera is with the rejectionists, those who support armed struggle (i.e. terrorism) to achieve their goals. Their continues to be an ongoing divide in the Arab world, with Syria and Iran on one side, and Egypt and most of the Gulf States on the other. Saudia Arabia continues with its tradition to try to have it both ways.
The Israeli TV showed an interesting piece on opposition ads against Ahmedinejad in Iran. The ads depict Ahmedinejad as Hitler and a Nazis. With elections coming up in Iran the opposition is trying to stir the pot as best it can.
