Out of the Rafah-Gaza quandary there emerges a disturbing reality, yet the same predicament lingers on
The borders between Egypt and Gaza are gradually but surely being resealed by Egyptian authorities and with the consent, even if reluctant, of Hamas, the de facto ruler of Gaza.
After close to nine days of unchecked inundation of close to 700,000 of the 1.5 million inhabitants of Gaza into the border city of Rafah and its immediate neighbour Arish, quiet is again in place. And within the next 48 to 72 hours, Egyptian officials predict, the whole border would have been cordoned off again.
However, what is unlikely to be in place again is the full siege that Israel has aimed -- against little if any world protest -- to squeeze Gaza through. While American and Israeli officials have been demanding that Egypt simply seals its borders and leaves Gaza to its fate, Egyptian officials say they know for fact that it has become practically impossible to retain the closed- crossing policy that Egypt adopted, in line with international rules of operation for the Rafah crossing point that demand the presence of observers and borders guards from the European Union and the Palestinian Authority -- who had left Gaza since the Hamas takeover last June.
"The Israelis and Americans can say all they want. But they know that Egypt has to act upon its interests," commented an Egyptian official who asked for anonymity. And, he explained, it is certainly not in the interest of Egypt to ignore the fact that if the Rafah crossing point was to be completely sealed off again under continued Israeli siege on Gaza another breach will occur. "It will be a matter of time before the Palestinians break into Rafah again. This is a scenario we dread so much. We would rather work to secure a prompt and internationally accepted mechanism for the operation of the Rafah crossing point," the official added.
For Egypt to secure a prompt and legal operation of the borders it would need to either secure the consent of Hamas for the re-instatement of the borders agreement suspended by the Hamas control of Gaza or alternatively to introduce a new agreement acceptable to both sides and passable by Israel and the international community. Either scenarios, however, would require a Hamas-Fatah agreement, if not full reconciliation.
"I call upon all the Palestinian people, with all their factions, to prioritise the need to end the suffering of the Palestinian people," President Hosni Mubarak said earlier this week before calling for a Hamas-Fatah reconciliation to be hosted by Cairo.
Mubarak's call for Palestinian reconciliation is not exactly new. Egypt has tried, on and off, during the past few months to mend the many cracks in the Palestinian rank -- but with no success at all.
Mubarak's call for Palestinian reconciliation this time, however, carries a new firmness. "Before, Egypt wanted to mend the Palestinian differences to secure Palestinian unity at time of Palestinian-Israeli negotiations. Now, it is much more than that. Egypt wants to make sure that Palestinian affairs and differences will be contained within the Palestinian territories and will not spill over to neighbouring Egyptian territories as we have seen during the past week," the Egyptian official commented.
Mubarak's call for Palestinian unity was met with overt and covert criticism from American and Israeli officials who make no secrete of their wish to isolate and eventually ostracise Hamas. It was, however, supported firmly by the Arab League and mildly by the Europeans.
For their part, Hamas officials were quick to make a vocal and repeated welcome of Mubarak's call for Palestinian dialogue. It was Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas who declined the Egyptian initiative, almost in a rough way.
http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2008/882/fr1.htm
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