Egypt's Prime Minister Shows Support for Hamas
(edit: for decades the brute pig Mubarek slept in the bad of Isrel as Gaza was savagely raped and made a irtual concentration camp, blocked from all sides. This, i hope, is a break with Muburek(who indeed has the blood of many palstinians on his hands due to is allying with Israel--We need Egypt to stand up for prisoners of Gaza--for once since Mubarek is history)
Note this news report is from the NOTORIOUSLY ultr-zionist WSJ/DowJones company.
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip—Egyptian Prime Minister Hisham Qandil made a historic visit to the Gaza Strip amid the biggest flare-up of violence in years between Israel and Hamas, underscoring the acute dilemma Egypt's new Islamist government faces as the stakes rise in the long-running conflict between the Israelis and Palestinians.
Mr. Qandil arrived in Gaza on Friday morning to demonstrate his new government's clear policy break from Egypt's ousted, more pro-Israeli regime. He met with Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh before visiting wounded civilians at a crowded Shifa Hospital in the Gaza Strip.
Israel hit the Gaza Strip with airstrikes and artillery shells for a second straight day Thursday and Hamas ramped up rocket fire at Israel, as both sides widened hostilities in the conflict's bloodiest escalation in four years. Charles Levinson has the latest from Tel Aviv on The News Hub.
Mr. Qandil's high-profile visit to Gaza, unprecedented for such a senior Egyptian official, comes on the third day of exchanges of rocket fire and attacks between Hamas and Israel's military. He was ordered Thursday to lead a delegation to Gaza by Egypt's newly elected president, Mohammed Morsi.
Hamas has fired hundreds of rockets into southern Israel, and even landed missiles on the outskirts of Israel's business center and largest city, Tel Aviv. Civil defense sirens again sounded on Friday afternoon in Tel Aviv, followed by what sounded like an explosion. It was unclear in the immediate aftermath exactly what caused the sound.
The crisis has become the biggest in Gaza in years, and sees the Palestinian-Israeli conflict vaulted once again to center stage in the Middle East.
Gamal Sultan, professor of political science at the American University in Cairo, said the current hostilities in Gaza are a major test for the credibility of the Muslim Brotherhood movement, which has long accused the former Egyptian regime of a defeatist and even pro-Israel posture in the Arab-Israeli conflict.
"It is a moment of truth," said Mr. Sultan. "Morsi is experiencing firsthand the hard strategic realities in the region."
Hamas officials accused Israel's air force of targeting the home of Prime Minister Haniyeh's home Thursday evening amid a massive overnight escalation. Though Mr. Haniyeh wasn't there at the time, and it was unclear whether his home was in fact hit, the accusation that Israel targeted a nominally elected top leadership figure in Hamas would mark a serious uptick in Israel's controversial "targeted killing" effort against individual Hamas leaders.
Israeli officials denied targeting Mr. Haniyeh's home.
Conflict in Gaza Strip, Israel
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European Pressphoto AgencySmoke rises from a Hamas site after an Israeli air strike in the center of Gaza City on Friday.
In a chaotic news conference at Shifa Hospital amid hundreds of reporters and blood-spattered doctors in white coats, Messrs. Qandil and Haniyeh struck a defiant note, blasting Israeli aggression and declaring a new unified front against Israel.
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"It isn't a matter of individuals, not a matter of community. It is a matter of a nation. The Arab nation, the Islamic nation," Mr. Qandil said. "We are all behind you, the struggling nation, the heroic that is presenting its children as heroes every day."
Even as the two leaders spoke, Israel-bound rockets fired by Hamas could be heard taking off in the background. Though Israel had pledged to cease firing during Mr. Qandil's three-hour visit, Hamas continued to batter southern Israel.
Egypt's Islamist government, elected earlier this year, is facing its first real challenge—both domestically and on the international scene—over how it tackles the latest confrontation in Gaza.
Egypt has already taken steps that would have been unthinkable under the former regime of Hosni Mubarak. It has expelled the Israeli ambassador and frozen diplomatic ties with Israel, lifted some restrictions at Egypt's border crossing with the Gaza Strip and dispatching Mr. Qandil to Gaza City.
Yet the crux of the problem for President Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood party, which has deep ideological ties with Hamas, is that they being asked by their militant Palestinian allies to do much more, as they are at the helm of power in the Arab world's most populous and influential state after the fall of Mr. Mubarak during the Arab Spring uprisings in 2011.
At home a vocal and emboldened Islamist constituency is also clamoring for a more robust response from Egypt's new rulers. Ministers in Mr. Morsi's cabinet, including one who oversees mosques and religious institutions, are asking Mr. Morsi for more radical steps. Major "Gaza solidarity" protests and rallies are scheduled today in Cairo's Tahrir Square, the epicenter of the anti-Mubarak demonstrations nearly two years ago, as well as after noon prayers at mosques around the country including the capital's influential Azhar Mosque.
Still, Mr. Morsi is dealing with monumental tasks at home. Jumpstarting Egypt's ailing economy and easing hostility among sizeable segments of the population, who are unsettled at the Muslim Brotherhood's sudden rise to power, are high on the priority list—and closely connected to the process of drafting a new constitution that is currently under way.
Beyond domestic concerns, veering too close to Hamas threatens to alienate Israel's main international backers in the U.S. and Europe, both of which Egypt is counting on to help revive the economy with loans, investment and trade opportunities.
Nonetheless, Hamas's leaders have stepped up pressure on Mr. Morsi, attempting to paint the moment as a turning point for Egypt.
In a speech at an Islamic conference in the Sudanese capital Khartoum on Thursday, Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal spoke about the need for the Islamic ummah, or nation, to "pluck the fruits of the Arab Spring." Mr. Mashaal said, "Today the leaders of Arabism and Islam must raise the ceiling and change the rules of the game."
In a televised address on Thursday Prime Minister Haniyeh praised "the new equation, leadership and spirit in Egypt," thanking Mr. Morsi for the steps taken so far while asking that he do more. "We must prove to this occupier [Israel] that times have changes and that it's impossible for the leadership to remain quiet while Gaza is being cornered," he said. "I ask the Egyptian leadership to remain in action mode."
—Lara el-Gibaly contributed to this article.Write to Matt Bradley at matt.bradley@dowjones.com and Sam Dagher at sam.dagher@wsj.com |
