The Breach in the Wall Between Egypt and Gaza

This morning's blast through the barrier between Egypt and Gaza has resulted in not only a flow of people across the border, but a flow of weapons as well. According to World Net Daily:

Egyptian security forces did not interfere as massive quantities of weapons were transported across the Egyptian border into the Gaza Strip when masked gunmen today blew dozens of holes in the wall delineating the frontier, according to Palestinian militant sources at the scene speaking to WND.

"Very good things came in (to Gaza)," said a senior leader of the Popular Resistance Committees, a Gaza-based, Hamas-allied terrorist group. The leader spoke on condition his name be withheld

"Egyptian security men at the border were very passive – they wanted this to happen; they didn't prevent anything from coming in or going out," said the terrorist, who was speaking from the Gaza side of the border.

Some 350,000 Palestinians reportedly poured out of Gaza and into Egypt today after masked men detonated 17 bombs, destroying some two-thirds of a wall separating the Gaza Strip from Egypt.

Hamas was reportedly behind it, though they have not openly claimed credit yet. Mubarak says he is allowing Palestinians in for humanitarian reasons.  Of course, the humanitarian crisis is all a ruse (hooray for "Pallywood"):

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's government instead decided to cut back fuel supplies and shipment trucks entering Gaza from the Israeli border in an effort to pressure Gaza's Hamas leadership. But Israeli officials say they continue to transfer sufficient aid and materials to the Palestinians to prevent a humanitarian catastrophe and allow Gaza's power plants to run.

Still, on Sunday, Hamas unilaterally decided to shut down Gaza's only electrical plant, which supplies power to about 20 percent of Gaza, including over 400,000 people in Gaza City.

Hamas claimed it did not have enough fuel to run the plant due to Israeli cutbacks, a contention strongly contested by Israel.

Shlomo Dror, a spokesman for Israel's Defense Ministry, said Gaza has enough fuel to run its power plants and accused Palestinian officials of trying to create the impression of a crisis that did not exist.

Dror pointed out that while Israel cut back some fuel shipments, which he said would mostly affect drivers, the Jewish state continues to supply Gaza directly with two-thirds of its electricity.

The power stations that supply most of Gaza's electricity are located in the Israeli city of Ashkelon, into which Palestinian terrorists have been launching rockets at a furious rate the past few days.

"It is crazy the Palestinians are firing rockets at the stations that fuel Gaza," commented Olmert earlier this week.

Just stop firing those f***ing rockets, and there will be no problem.  Firing rockets = retaliation from Israel.  No rockets = no retaliation from Israel.  Very simple equation.

The darling BBC, always such a help:

One BBC report, for example, claimed due to the Israeli blockage, Palestinians ran out of burial shrouds and have resorted to draping their dead in old flags. But neither Israel nor any humanitarian agency, including the United Nations, has ever shipped burial shrouds to Gaza, meaning the Israeli blockage could not have created any shortage.

David Hazony writes at Contentions:

So, what are we to make of the fact that Egypt, with probably the largest military in the entire middle east, has done nothing about the breach? Of all the anti-Western, terror-sponsoring regimes on earth, probably none are anti-Westerner and terror-sponsoringer than the one in Gaza. And now Egypt, in order to distance itself from the Israeli blockade and show its humanitarian feathers, risks making itself a direct accomplice to the arming of terrorists. This follows just a few weeks after it capitulated to Palestinian demands, against its promises to Israel, to let several thousand Palestinians cross back into Gaza through the security-lax, Egypt-bordered Rafah crossing, rather than go through a more rigorous weapons check at the Israel-bordered Kisufim.

In the middle east, friends of the West are often fickle when it comes to seriously fighting terror. Let’s keep an eye on Egypt.

A commenter responds:

...Egypt is in a low-level, constant war with Israel. Don’t kid yourself. There’s no peace between Egypt and Israel; merely a time out.

From where I am standing, it's looking as though things will get uglier sooner, rather than later.  The moral of the story seems to be:  Crush the enemy when you have a chance - tomorrow he may be that much stronger.

No one wants a fight.  Hold on, that's not true.  One side does, and it's not Israel.  Have they not offered land for peace?  Did they not uproot 8,000 people from Gaza just a few short years ago in a gesture of good faith?

Gives meaning to the old saying: No good deed goes unpunished.