THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume X, Issue # 36, February 8, 2008
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
HOW TO TURN GAZA OVER TO EGYPT
By Dr. Daniel Pipes
U.S. & WESTERN POLICY TOWARD GAZA, EGYPT, & ISRAEL: TRANSFERRING GAZA TO EGYPTIAN JURISDICTION &
RESPONSIBILITY -- HOW CAN IT BE DONE?
FULL STORY:
"Listen to me carefully," President Hosni Mubarak, of Egypt, instructed an interviewer on January 30, 2007.
"Gaza is not part of Egypt, nor will it ever be…. I hear talk of a
proposal to turn the Strip into an extension of the Sinai
peninsula, of offloading responsibility for it onto Egypt…."
Mubarak, however, dismissed this as "nothing but a dream."
Hardly a dream. It's a reality that surfaced since January 23, 2008, when Hamas operatives breached large segments of the
wall separating Gaza from Egypt. That unexpected step alerted the world that an Egyptian embargo, no less than an Israeli
one, prevents Gazans from leaving their territory or trading with the outside world.
Given that Gazans have shown themselves incapable of responsible self-rule and Cairo has tacitly allowed the smuggling
of arms since 2000, Mubarak needs to be made responsible for the Gaza Strip. As my column last week argued,
"Washington and other capitals should declare the experiment in Gazan self-rule a failure and press Hosni Mubarak of
Egypt to help."
Hamas partially concurs: One leader, Ismail Haniyeh, hopes Gaza can "move toward economic disengagement from the
Israeli occupation," while another, Ahmad Youssef, wants the Gaza-Egypt border opened to trade and Egypt to serve as
Gaza's "gateway" to the outside world. As Hamas promises that Cairo's re-closing the wall on February 3, 2008, will not
turn back the clock, Egypt's Muslim Brethren, a Hamas ally, demands the Gaza border be opened. Can Mubarak ignore
these demands, popular among Egyptians? In effect, Gaza has already begun imposing itself on an unwilling Egypt.
Some Israelis wish to help it. Israel's Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilnai, for example, holds that Cairo should take over
economically.
"When Gaza is open to the other side, we lose responsibility
for it. So we want to disconnect from it. We want to stop
supplying electricity to them, stop supplying them with water
and medicine."
The Israeli Supreme Court, having ruled on Jannuary 30 that the government may reduce supplies of fuel and electricity
to Gaza, renders a cutoff feasible.
How to achieve Gaza's transfer?
Robert Satloff, of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, suggests to me that Jerusalem announce three steps: "a
date certain for the severing of Israel's provision of water, electricity and trade access, free entry for replacement services
through Egypt, and an invitation for international support to link Gaza to Egyptian grids." Giora Eiland, a former Israeli
national security adviser, would also detach Gaza from its customs union with Israel and the West Bank.
These Israeli initiatives would force the Egyptian hand. Sure, the Egyptians, with help from Fatah and even Hamas, will try
to resurrect the border and put the onus back on Israel. But, in the end, Arab solidarity demands that Egyptian "brothers"
fill in for the Israeli enemy. Once Jerusalem cuts supplies, Cairo has no choice but to furnish them. Economic dependence
would then further involve Egypt, which has further consequences. It:
Revives the old idea of resolving the Arab-Israeli conflict via
a three-way partition by Egypt, Israel, and Jordan.
Permits Hamas to connect with its parent organization, the
Muslim Brethren. Indeed, Egyptian security forces have
already arrested at least 12 armed Hamas members in Egypt
and other Gazans with suicide belts. Controlling Islamist
violence out of Gaza will become an Egyptian priority – but
Mubarak has coped with Islamists throughout his 27-year
Presidency and he can deal with this new challenge in ways
that Israel cannot.
Limits the freedom for Hamas and Islamic Jihad to attack Israel.
Yes, Egyptians want rockets falling on Sderot, but Cairo knows
that their continuation invites Israeli reprisals and possibly a
full-scale war.
To prevent Gazans from creating trouble in Egypt or attacking Israel requires heavy policing of their territory. This
presumably means loosening the stringent restrictions on the deployment of Egyptian forces near the border with Israel in
Annex I to the 1979 Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty. Fortunately, Egyptian security services in Gaza need be only lightly
armed and the Multinational Force & Observers in the Sinai peninsula could add this monitoring duty to their tasks.
In brief, Gaza can be dumped on Egypt with confidence that the Egyptians must accept it and must impede Gazans from
attacking Israel. Starting this "peace process," though, will require uncharacteristic imagination and energy from Israel and
the Western states.
© Daniel Pipes 2008
Originally Published in the Jerusalem Post, February 7, 2008
Republished with the Permission of Daniel Pipes
Reprinted from the Daniel Pipes Mailing List, February 7, 2008
Article URL: http://www.danielpipes.org/article/5441
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
Israel & the Arabs -- The Israeli-Arab Conflict
Egypt, Arabs, & the Middle East
Middle East -- Arabs, Arab States,
& Their Middle Eastern Neighbors
American Foreign Policy -- The Middle East
Islamism & Jihadism -- Radical Islam & Islamic Terrorism
Page Three
Page Two
Page One
International Politics & World Disorder:
War & Peace in the Real World
Page Two
Page One
Islamist Terrorist Attacks on the U.S.A.
Osama bin Laden & the Islamist Declaration of War
Against the U.S.A. & Western Civilization
Islamist International Terrorism &
U.S. Intelligence Agencies
U.S. National Security Strategy
Dr. Daniel Pipes, a Ph.D. in Islamic History (Harvard University, 1978), is the Founder and Director of the Middle East Forum,
the Founder of Campus Watch, a signatory of the Project for the New American Century, a former board member of the U.S.
Institute of Peace, a former adjunct scholar at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, a Golden Circle supporter of the
U.S. Committee for a Free Lebanon, a former member of the U.S. Department of Defense Special Task Force on Terrorism and
Technology, and a former lecturer at the U.S. Naval War College, Harvard University, the University of Chicago, and the
University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Pipes was the Director of the Foreign Policy Research Institute from 1986 to 1993.
Author or co-author of eighteen books, Dr. Pipes is a regular columnist for Front Page Magazine, the New York
Sun, and the Jerusalem Post. His analyses of world trends and of forces and developments in the Middle East
have appeared in numerous North American newspapers, including the Washington Post, the New York Times,
and the Wall Street Journal. He frequently appears on American network television, as well as at universities and
think tanks, to discuss the Middle East, Islam, and the Islamist threat to the U.S.A. and the West. He also has appeared on
BBC and Al Jazeera, and has lectured in approximately twenty-five countries.
Dr. Pipes is a Polish-American Jew whose parents fled Poland in 1939, immigrated to the U.S.A., and assimilated well into
American society and culture. His father is Richard Pipes, an American historian specializing in Russian and Soviet history
and serving as Professor of History at Harvard University from 1950 until his retirement in 1996. During the Cold War, the
worldview of Richard Pipes was strongly anti-Soviet and anti-Communist.
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Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
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