Another Preventable Attack

This week, in coordinated attacks, as many as 20 terrorists infiltrated from Gaza into Egypt and then into southern Israel, killing eight Israelis. Israeli authorities believe the terrorists exited Gaza via underground tunnels and slipped into Israel through a "tattered wire fence" along the Israel-Egypt border. Predictably, only now, after a tragedy, does Israel plan to complete construction of the remaining three-quarters of the 200km fence.

Buses targeted by the terrorists had some soldiers as passengers, some of whom returned fire while others administered first aid to victims. But passengers in cars also targeted were sitting ducks. In one case, terrorists reportedly shot two sisters and their husbands at point-blank range and then confirmed the deaths. Had the travelers been armed, perhaps they could have repelled the attack. Perhaps they should have been carrying the same weapons often seen being carried by "radical Israeli settlers" in their self-defense.

Recently, militants were arrested and weapons seized in Egypt's Sinai peninsula, in the latest indication that militants there are re-emerging after the fall of Egyptian President Mubarak. A group calling itself "Al Qaeda in the Sinai Peninsula" is said to have formed. Given such news and the sophistication of this week's attacks, we're probably seeing the beginnings of an escalation of Arab terrorism emanating from a destabilized Egypt and terror-controlled Gaza. One question that remains to be seen is whether the command-and-control structure of this renewed effort against Israel rests more in Gaza or in Egypt. Gaza's Hamas leadership will insist it has no role and Israel is picking a fight.

Will Clinton's Message to the Palestinians Get Through?

In a press conference in Washington with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and Palestinian President Abbas, Secretary of State Clinton reportedly said:

Your leaders may be sitting at the negotiating table, but you [the people of the Middle East] are ultimately the ones who will ultimately decide the future. [sic]

She's right. With regard to the Palestinians, it's not Abbas's signature on some piece of paper that's going to bring peace, but whether or not the Palestinian people are ready to put the conflict behind them. Their leadership, however, has a responsibility to prepare them for conflict-ending concessions and coexistence with Israel. Clinton's message is a good first step, but the question is, Will it get through? We were reminded this week that at least some of the Arab press cannot be counted on to deliver it.

Egypt's state-run newspaper, al-Ahram, doctored a photo of President Obama and Middle East leaders at the White House recently to depict Egyptian President Mubarak leading the others down a hallway, rather than walking last which was the real situation.

It's just the latest illustration of how messages intended for Middle East audiences are shaped by autocratic leaders and their government-controlled media. And it reflects the challenges that may lie ahead in reaching out to the Palestinians to condition them for peace. Palestinian leaders -- and not U.S. leaders in Washington -- ultimately will have to do that themselves.

Where Lives Are Expendable

Why is it that in populous, second-world nations human life seems to have diminished value? And why do the governments of such nations just seem to care less about their people? Is it because there are so many people that the loss of a relative few is tolerable? Or, is the answer simply that, in many cases, these governments are run by unaccountable dictators who couldn't care less? Either way, I don't think it's that simple.

Egypt provides the most recent example, after reports tonight that a train collision killed 25. The accident is only the most recent of several that needlessly took the lives of many, many people. I have a hunch that if these countries had bureaucracies where people were held to account for their inadequacies and mistakes, more accidents would be prevented. At least that's a more hopeful answer than thinking that countries with hugely-populated metropolitan areas simply view people as expendable.

Neglecting Egyptian Political Reform

In an op-ed in today's Washington Post, Michele Dunne of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace does a great job reminding us -- and, more importantly, Obama's White House -- of the need to resuscitate the push for more democracy and human rights in Egypt. She says Obama is mistaken to have set aside these concerns in the hope that doing so will win Egyptian support for other U.S. priorities -- namely, the peace process and Iranian nukes:

But Obama can have Mubarak's help without having to pay for it with his silence. Mubarak shares Washington's interests in preventing the emergence of a permanent Hamas state in Gaza, in promoting a peace agreement between Palestinians and Israel, and in containing Iranian nuclear ambitions. He will work toward those ends for his own reasons and cooperate with the United States accordingly -- as he did even at the height of the Bush administration's democracy promotion rhetoric in 2004 and 2005.

Editorial Urges Pressure on Egypt's Mubarak

Kudos to the Washington Post for today's editorial calling upon President Obama not to invite Egyptian President Mubarak to Washington unconditionally.

If he does, the administration will send the region the message that the corrupt old status quo -- in which the United States backed Arab dictators in exchange for help with U.S. strategic interests -- has been restored. That would inflict crippling damage on Mr. Obama's attempt to restore U.S. credibility and prestige, particularly with the millions of secular, middle-class Arabs who chafe under corrupt autocracies.

With Bush gone, it is important that Washington continue to call for political reform in Arab countries. Not that Bush was so successful in this regard, but at least he raised the issue for at least a while. Obama, too, needs to recognize that Middle East stability and the fight against terrorism depend upon spreading freedom in the Arab world. U.S. relations with the Arabs need to be conditioned on measurable progress in this regard.

Secretly, Arab Leaders Are Thrilled By Israel's Actions

Egypt's foreign minister blasted the United Nations for failing to stop Israel's "aggression," while a Jordanian government spokesman predicted Israel's "invasion" would have "dangerous repercussions and negative effects" on security and stability in the region.

Are these countries, who've signed peace treaties with Israel, really that outraged by Israel's actions? While their people may be, as evidenced by street protests, their leaders, secretly, are thrilled.

To placate the masses and, in particular, members of the Muslim Brotherhood and other radicals living in Egypt and Jordan, leaders of these countries spare no effort to condemn Israel's actions. But, behind their palaces' walls, they couldn't be more relieved that Israel is doing their dirty work for them -- rolling back the influence and military capabilities of one of the region's deadliest terrorist groups, Hamas, responsible for dozens of suicide attacks that killed hundreds of Israeli civilians since October 2000.

Hamas and, with it, Iran are growing influences in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and by extension, in Lebanon and Syria, as well. In pursuing Israel's destruction and the eventual establishment of Islamic regimes, Hamas threatens the stability and security of not only Israel and Palestinians, but Egypt and Jordan, who couldn't be happier to see Hamas under attack. If only leaders of these countries were courageous enough to admit so publicly.

A Bittersweet Battle in Gaza

Israel's attack on Hamas in Gaza, which started today, is a bittersweet moment.

It's relieving to see Hamas, which has been firing rockets into southern Israel for months and still holds IDF soldier Gilat Shalit for over two years, finally feeling some pain. Hopefully, Israel will be relentless in its attacks and force upon Hamas a new reality in which it understands a price will be paid for any future instigation.

However, today's violence is, undeniably, also terribly saddening. Palestinians in Gaza could have been better off had it not been for Hamas. Israel's withdrawal from Gaza in August 2005 offered an opportunity for the Palestinians there to exercise self-rule and establish a nascent state. Hamas failed them, but Palestinians also failed themselves for electing Hamas to power. As a Ha'aretz columnist wrote, "Nothing has been more instrumental in harming the cause of Palestinian independence than Hamas."

Instead of building a state, Hamas began building an army, with dozens of new security installations, thousands of new recruits, and tens of thousands of rockets and anti-aircraft missiles smuggled via Egypt.

Hamas and Palestinian Authority leaders need to be pressured to help Palestinians along a different path toward reconciliation with Israel. Unfortunately, they won't hear that from Israel's closest Arab allies. Egypt reportedly condemned Israel's attacks today, which Jordan's King Abdullah said "targeted innocent women and children." These Arab "allies" should know better. They should put the blame squarely on Hamas, not Israel.

Instead, the relief from Hamas rule which Palestinians deserve will be delayed and will come only once Palestinians, collectively, have tired of war and rise up against their corrupt rulers demanding change. If that time comes only in a hundred or more years, so be it. For only then will a lasting peace be within reach.

Egypt Should Arrest, not Entertain, Palestinian Terrorists

The New York Times reported on Friday that Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman hosted a delegation of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad members for discussions on reaching a cease-fire with Israel in Gaza. Instead of welcoming the Palestinian terrorists with open arms and hot coffee, the Egyptian official -- whose country signed a "peace" treaty with Israel and is bound by United Nations resolutions to fight terrorism -- should have summoned his security men and arrested and jailed his guests for transfer to Israeli or US authorities. The US and Israel should demand that Egypt stop providing the political cover these terrorist groups need to survive. The solution to terrorism is not to strike a deal with these groups but, rather, to dismantle them and starve them of legitimacy.