From: B
TIME May 26, 2011
Egypt Pulls the Plug on a Failed U.S.-Israeli Gaza Strategy
TONY KARON
It might have been easy, amid the raucous cheering at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Capitol Hill pep rally on Tuesday, for Israelis to ignore President Obama's earlier warning of a gathering storm on Israel's horizon. But Wednesday's announcement that Egypt plans, on Saturday, to effectively end the siege of Gaza by permanently opening the Rafah border crossing brought home the harsh truth of Israel's increasingly isolated position. (Obama, the same day, got a non-commital response from Prime Minister David Cameron in London when urging Britain to join the U.S. in opposing a September U.N. vote recognizing Palestinian statehood.)
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Gone is President Hosni Mubarak, whose own animus towards Hamas (the offspring of his domestic nemesis, the Muslim Brotherhood) made him an enthusiastic backer of the U.S.-Israel strategy on Gaza. Mubarak, as Obama implied, never represented the will of his people, and even before they elect a government certain to be tougher on Israel, an interim military leadership more heedful of public sentiment made clear it could no longer sustain the blockade.
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The Egyptian authorities, no doubt, hope to integrate Hamas into structures of Israeli-Palestinian coexistence, and encourage a more moderate direction, at the same time as acknowledging the reality that the U.S. and Israel have long tried to evade -- that no peace can be achieved without the consent of Hamas. The Egyptians know, as do many senior Israeli securocrats, that their security interests, whether it be the release of captive soldier Gilad Shalit or the maintenance of a cease-fire along Israel's southern flank require pragmatic cooperation, and even negotiation, with Hamas.
So, while Netanyahu warns that Abbas choose between him and Hamas, that's a framework Abbas -- and the region -- has effectively abandoned. Given the limits on what Netanyahu has been willing to offer him thus far, it's hard to see him being tempted to reverse his pact with Hamas. The Egyptians, in fact, are effectively laying out post-Mubarak terms of engagement that will be more favorable to the Palestinians. A rude awakening for the Israelis, to be sure, but perhaps simply a precursor to what could happen in September, when President Obama's best efforts may not be enough to prevent the UN General Assembly specifying that the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem belong to a Palestinian state with which Israel will have to find peace.
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