Tension is mounting as Israel comes to grips with the new reality of Islamist Egypt.
On Thursday, a team of 15 to 20 armed al-Qaeda terrorists (members of the Palestinian Popular Committees, an al-Qaeda affiliate) snaked through tunnels from Gaza to Sinai. From there, they hiked 200 kilometers over land, either ignored or facilitated by Egyptian army forces. They were thus able to sneak into Israel through the porous border at Eilat — porous because Israel has not needed to worry much about its Egyptian border for the last 30 years.
At around noon, the terrorists took up positions along the highway and opened fire at buses and cars. One detonated a suicide belt. In all, eight Israelis were killed and 30 more wounded. The terrorists shot to death a family of four who were just out driving in their car — father, mother, and their 6- and 4-year-old kids (“resistance” against the “occupiers,” as Islamists like to say). Barry Rubin counts this as al-Qaeda’s first successful terrorist attack against Israel.
From here, the story gets more frightful. Israeli police and defense forces killed several of the terrorists. They pursued at least two of the terrorists into Egyptian territory. At that point, some Egyptian soldiers either joined in the firefight or got caught in it accidentally — the facts are not yet clear, though a least one eyewitness says a terrorist was firing from an Egyptian army position. Five Egyptian soldiers were killed.
In Egypt, where the public has always been predominantly ant-Israeli — in contrast to the Mubarak regime, which was pro-American and maintained the peace with Israel — demonstrations against Israel have broken out. Crowds are burning the Egyptian flag and one demonstrator scaled the 15-story wall of the Israeli embassy, tore down the Israeli flag, and replaced it with an Egyptian flag. (Powerline has pictures, here.) Obviously trying to simmer things down, Israel’s government has expressed regret over the killing of the Egyptian soldiers, but Egypt’s transitional military government — egged on by the protests — is saying this expression of regret is “insufficient.”
As is always the case, Palestinians are celebrating the terrorist attacks that killed Israelis — not only in Hamas-controlled Gaza but in the West Bank, where the “moderates” of Fatah are in charge. As Barry Rubin elaborates, “One Fatah site has such remarks as ‘Our Lord is with the heroes’; ‘[I] call for resistance in the Gaza with rocket fire and suicide bombings and the Glory of God and His Messenger’; ‘Tribute to the Heroes of each attack and no matter what their affiliation’; ‘God is great and victory is coming!’”
So to recap as we head into September, with the Muslim Brotherhood poised to take over Egypt and the Palestinians — encouraged by Israel’s enemies at the U.N. — poised to declare statehood unilaterally, we have al-Qaeda now active in Israel; a successful terrorist attack inside Israeli territory through Egypt; Israel and Egypt in a faceoff over the killing of Egyptian soldiers by Israel after those soldiers allowed (and perhaps even facilitated) an attack on Israel; and the Palestinians — with whom Israel is expected to make peace — celebrating the murder of a Jewish family and the killing of other Israelis.
John Hinderaker has been following events closely, and his posts are here and here. Barry Rubin’s analysis is here. As Barry says, “This isn’t just another terrorist attack — it’s a major escalation, a new phase in the Arab-Israeli conflict . . . it is the bitter fruit of the U.S.-backed downfall of the government of President Husni Mubarak in Egypt, opening the Egypt-Israel border as a new front in the war.”
What moderate Palestinians? How can Israel be expected to make peace with these animals? God Bless America, Bill
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseUnfortunately democracy is messy. If they don't get control of their border, Israel should impose sanctions on them.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuseor maybe Israel should follow the French example: Complain and if the complaining does not work THREATEN to complain some more.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseWell, we can look to The One for strong leadership.
He will... "make no mistake", and equally condemn official Israeli racism (not Jewish racism - they vote, and they're really, really different) and accidental non-official "over-reaction" to... Isreali racism.
How will it end?
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseMy guess:
1. more Jewish civilians will be killed (while Obama and the UN condemn Israeli reaction), and closer to major population centers, until the current Knesset is replaced by people with even shorter fuses than Bibi.
2. homicidal maniacs, err, sorry, Muslim fundamentalists will continue to have picnics with the FBI, HLS, White House photo ops (Grover Norquist can help here - again) etc. on how to best encourage Shari'a law in the US.
3. after the "2 state solution" becomes effective, the arabs returning to Israel will tip the voting balance, and demand another 2 state solution: half of the remaining Israeli territory. The UN agrees, and Obama "voices concerns" and "urges outreach to people of all faiths".
3. the last official act of the Knesset before the arab members take office is to declare war on all arab states, beginning with nuclear air strikes on Cairo, Damascus, Riyadh, Beirut, Tehran, Kabul, and Baghdad.
4. Obama offers free air travel and instant citizenship to 500 million surviving arabs.
5. Star & Crescent flies over the White House.
Mr. McCarthy, thank you for constantly reminding us that the so-called "Arab Spring" is a figment of the imagination of those who believe they can wish reality away. The idea that there is a real democratic movement in countries such as Egypt is fanciful. Our only friend in the middle east is Israel, something the Obama administration will not recognize.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseJust a factual correction to an excellent peace, because such things are important: No children were killed in Thursday's attack. The murdered were:
1. Two couples in their fifties taking a vacation together. The two wives were sisters. One couple was expecting their first grandchild shortly.
2. One half of a couple, similar age. The woman played dead, as it's known that the savages approach the car they've shot up to confirm the deaths. Her husband lay dying next to her as the Israeli military fought to get to them.
3. A driver of a bus, otherwise empty, attacked by a suicide bomber.
4. A 22-year old soldier, a member of an elite unit, killed in battle.
5. A senior enlisted member (late 40's) of an elite police counter-terror unit, apparently a legend in his own lifetime, killed as he fought the terrorists hours later.
As we say in Hebrew, "May God avenge their blood."
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseMore examples of the failure of 'smart power'...
The incompetent, weak, appeasing, nonsense of Mr. Obama, Mrs. Clinton, and the Democratic Party. They are inviting disaster with their own folly. There is always a huge price to pay with the vacuum of serious-strong foreign policy leadership from the USA.
We encountered this horror, after 8 years of the Clinton Malfeasance, which negligently ignored the growing threats to the USA, which helped enable the worst (making Americans far more vulnerable). We learned another painful lesson on 9-11.
Sadly, the Democratic Partisans are only enabling a dramatic mess again, as the World knows we have returned to a slumber of sophistry. They cannot help themselves, lost in their own pathetic greed and utter denial of reality.
It is a sincere tragedy. The GW Bush Administration, the former Reagan Presidency, etc., deserve great praise in bringing a serious, strong, healthy offering.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI recall a brief conversion a few years ago with a dear friend (who happens to be Jewish) who was celebrating Obama's then-recent election. I had bemoaned Obama's win, and my friend asked, "Oh, come on, how bad could [an Obama presidency] be?"
I blurted out without forethought, "He will sell out Israel."
It now makes me ill to know how right I was. And worse is likely yet to come.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI watched ABC's World News tonight; Not a single word about the unfolding events in Israel the last several days. I checked their website and didn't find a single word there, either.
The media is just pathetic.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI found the story in about one minute at abcnews.com by clicking the link to international news. One of the stories is at External Link
.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseJust to be clear, you're not disputing that the story wasn't covered on ABC World News? And, you didn't find the story on the front page of the ABC News website, but rather you had to click past that front page onto the international page, correct?
Other than that, ABC is all over this story, I guess.
ABC did however, find space on the front page for "Lindsay Lohan vs. Pippa Middleton: Who wore it better". So, we can be thankful for that.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseHere's a quibble: With the current US administration, it isn't just enemies of Israel at the UN, it is the UN that is the enemy.
I have a very close liberal, non-radical friend who has been sure that Israel was a mistake and in the way from its very inception after WWII. He may yet live to see his vision of world peace through elimination of the better few by the resentful many.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseWhoever said "Israel never misses an opportunity to miss an opportunity" must feel thoroughly vindicated. If Israel had settled the Palestinian question years ago they would be in a much stronger position now. But over the past several years, rather than work diligently for peace, Netan-YAHOO and his uber right-wing govt have done everything possible to maintain the status quo. Rather than agree to boundary lines, they pushed those boundaries to change the reality on the ground with clearly illegal settlements. They have engaged in mass punishment in Gaza. They've killed unarmed people on flotillas, causing a rift with Turkey; and they've dissed the US president. Now they have shot indiscriminantly into a sovereign nation, one that they know is experiencing great upheaval including a possible re-evaluation of their relationship. Does Israel have a death wish? Israel's most supportive "friends" in the US Congress, who have been reluctant to offer constructive criticism, may ultimately be midwives to its demise.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseBlaming Israel for the refusal of the surrounding Jew haters to accept the Jews and a Jewish state makes absolutely ZERO sense. Not much has changed since the Holocaust.
The same elements, Jew-hatred and apathy,are more in place today than they were 60 years ago with 2 principle differences:
1) The Palestinians openly express and shout their Jew-hatred from the roof tops and in their media. Mickey Mouse in Gaza kills Jews.
2) To the chagrin many the Jews now have a state of their own to defend themselves.
It's really sad to see so many in the West confused and outfoxed to the point they are cheering for the same people who flew planes into the towers 10 years ago.
BTW-No one ever said "Israel never misses an opportunity to miss an opportunity." That statement applies to Palestinians because they prefer killing Jews to loving and raising their own children whom they strap bombs onto and send them into pizzerias and such even though there is no shortage of adult men.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseVery well put SoCal. It is hard to understand Cadbury's sympathies for a death cult. Sick really.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseVery well put SoCal. It is hard to understand Cadbury's sympathies for a death cult. Sick really.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThe phrase was coined by Ben-Gurion (Israeli first Prime Minister) and he said that "The Palestinians never missed an opportunity to miss an opportunity ".
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseActually, it was Aba Eban (former Israeli Foreign Minister) who said: "The Palestinian Arabs never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity."
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThe Arab Spring is quickly turning into the Islamist Winter.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseSupport Isreal. Pray for peace.
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