That what Daniel Pipes thinks. Check out his argument that I can’t say I totally disagree with.
Washington and other capitals should declare the experiment in Gazan self-rule a failure and press President Husni Mubarak of Egypt to help, perhaps providing Gaza with additional land or even annexing it as a province. This would revert to the situation of 1948-67, except this time Cairo would not keep Gaza at arm’s length but take responsibility for it.
Culturally, this connection is a natural: Gazans speak a colloquial Arabic identical to the Egyptians of Sinai, have more family ties to Egypt than to the West Bank, and are economically more tied to Egypt (recall the many smugglers’ tunnels). Further, Hamas derives from an Egyptian organization, the Muslim Brethren. As David Warren of the Ottawa Citizen notes, calling Gazans “Palestinians” is less accurate than politically correct.
Why not formalize the Egyptian connection? Among other benefits, this would (1) end the rocket fire against Israel, (2) expose the superficiality of Palestinian nationalism, an ideology under a century old, and perhaps (3) break the Arab-Israeli logjam.
Related posts:
- Mideast: Egypt searching for Lebanese militants in Sinai
- Mideast: Israel and Egypt move to stop arms into Gaza
- Egypt: French salafists expelled after attack in Cairo
- Another rocket hits Israel, in a second Palestinian violation of the Gaza “truce”
- Egypt asks Israel to honor ceasefire broken by Hamas
- Half ton of explosives found near Egyptian border with Gaza
- Hillary Clinton Pledges $900 Million of OUR dollars for Gaza aid
- Boston Globe blames Israel for civil war in Gaza, praises Arafat
- Gaza: The people are starving, but at least they can get nice cars
- Hamas executes suspected Fatah traitors in Gaza
