{"id":10454,"date":"2011-08-27T11:25:19","date_gmt":"2011-08-27T07:25:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/?p=10454"},"modified":"2011-08-27T11:25:19","modified_gmt":"2011-08-27T07:25:19","slug":"israel%e2%80%99s-%e2%80%98nice-little-war%e2%80%99-gaza-egypt-in-range-of-fire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/middle-east-politics-analysis\/international-relations-analysis-middle-east\/israel%e2%80%99s-%e2%80%98nice-little-war%e2%80%99-gaza-egypt-in-range-of-fire\/","title":{"rendered":"Israel\u2019s \u2018Nice Little War\u2019: Gaza, Egypt in Range of Fire"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Israeli writer Uri Avnery recently wrote an article entitled \u2018How Godly Are Thy Tents?\u2019, which began with the words, \u201cFirst of all, a warning.\u201d<\/p>\n

The reference was made to the tent cities that have sprung up across the country by middle class Israelis demanding change and reforms. The organizational style of these demands was not entirely different from Arab uprisings. To everyone\u2019s surprise, the limited Israeli mobilization, which extended from concerns about sky-rocketing real estate prices to calls for \u2018social justice\u2019, was seen as Israel\u2019s Tahrir Square moment. The movement was yet to articulate a political agenda, although such enunciation would have been a natural progression.<\/p>\n

So what was Avnery\u2019s warning about?<\/p>\n

The \u201csocial protest movement is gathering momentum,\u201d wrote Avnery.\u00a0 \u201cAt that point, there will be a temptation \u2013 perhaps an irresistible temptation \u2013 to \u2018warm up the borders\u2019. To start a nice little war. Call on the youth of Israel, the same young people now manning\u2026the tents, to go and defend the fatherland.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was an unnerving warning, not only because it came from Avnery, a veteran well-versed in his understanding of the Israel ruling class, but also because it actualized in its entirety a few days later.<\/p>\n

The \u2018war\u2019 had indeed commenced, starting on August 18. The \u2018provocation\u2019 had supposedly demonstrated without doubt that Israel\u2019s security was greatly compromised and that the small state with \u2018indefensible borders\u2019 was paying a high price for Gaza\u2019s armed intransigence and Egypt\u2019s post-revolutionary chaos. Israeli sources reported that a large number of militants had crossed Sinai into Israel\u2019s Red Sea resort of Eilat on Thursday (August 18), opening fire on two buses carrying Israeli soldiers. The passage was implacably coordinated, thus the ability of these bold attackers to kill and wound soldiers and other Israelis. According to the Israeli version of events, some of the attackers were killed, but others managed to flee back to Egypt. This forced the Israeli military to pursue them in an extraordinary chase, which mistakenly killed three Egyptian military personal.<\/p>\n

Israeli sources, seemingly clueless to the armed men\u2019s infiltration of a high security area, immediately provided precise information about the attackers. Instant consensus was also reached about the attackers\u2019 link to Gaza. Per the massive strikes on many Gaza targets, it seemed as though the entire Strip was being blamed and punished.<\/p>\n

The outcome was most predictable, albeit tragic. Israeli warplanes flew back over the Gaza sky, drones roamed uncontested, and the Palestinian death toll augmented. The whole miserable scene of killed civilians, mutilated children and burnt buildings was once more upon us. The chorus of support for Israel and condemnation of Palestinians from Washington was reminiscent of a history that never stops repeating itself.<\/p>\n

But before delving into counter-arguments, one is tempted to question the conveniently situated Israeli wars of \u2018self defense.\u2019 How different is this latest \u2018nice little war\u2019 from the horrifying Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982? When Ariel Sharon requested an American green light to attack Lebanon, Alexander Haig, US Secretary of State under President Ronald Reagan, insisted Israel must possess a \u2018credible provocation\u2019 before leading such a mission. Moreover, the case made to justify the war on Gaza in 2008-09 Operation Cast Lead also had its own \u2018credible provocation\u2019. In fact, all of Israel\u2019s wars are sold to the public within this neat package which actually holds little credibility.<\/p>\n

This time the provocation had to be convincing enough to justify multiple Israeli strikes on all of Gaza\u2019s factions, as well as politically vulnerable Egypt.<\/p>\n

Why is Israel bent on discrediting Egypt, exploiting the most sensitive period of its modern history, and destabilizing the border area so as to show Egypt\u2019s failure to ensure Israel\u2019s border security, as stipulated in the Camp David treaty?<\/p>\n

Reportedly, all of Gaza\u2019s prominent factions denied any responsibility for the Eilat attacks, including the Popular Resistance Committees (not affiliated with Hamas), which was accused by Israeli of being behind the attacks.<\/p>\n

Responding to Israel\u2019s killing of Egyptian officers, and under pressure by thousands of porters, Egypt pulled its ambassador out of Israel on August 20. In Israel, the discussion is now shifting to security and the need to complete construction of its 200km barrier at the border with Egypt, ostensibly aimed at blocking African immigrants from sneaking into Israel. Strangely, Egypt, which stands accused of allowing hundreds of militants into Israel from Sinai, had kept an eye on the border despite the effects of the revolution on security throughout the country. On July 7, for example, and on August 11, Egyptian security reportedly killed an Eritrean man and a Sudan migrant respectively for trying to cross the border. Many others have been apprehended during past months as well.<\/p>\n

The army\u2019s ability to strike down lone migrants, while supposed laxity allowed for the infiltration of hundreds in one instance raises more questions than it provides answers.<\/p>\n

Some hidden hands seem to be orchestrating chaos in the city of Arish and the rest of the Sinai area. This includes the peculiar daytime attack by hundreds of armed met at police stations in Arish on July 29, which killed several Egyptian officers.<\/p>\n

While deliberate chaos was being engendered in Sinai, fear was returning to Gaza as it was promised another Israeli military assault.<\/p>\n

On August 9, residents of the impoverished Gaza Strip feared attack by Israel. The fears were not only based on repeated threats by Israeli officials, but also on a mysterious telecommunication blackout that day which cut off all Internet, mobile phones and international landlines for hours, according to Ma\u2019an news agency. \u201cMeanwhile, residents of Gaza near the border with Israel said army bulldozers were seen operating shortly before communications went offline,\u201d Ma\u2019an reported.<\/p>\n

Why did Israel cut Gaza\u2019s communication off? Was the \u2018credible provocation\u2019 being concocted then? Why did Israel fail to provide a reasonable explanation for the blackout? More, why the attempt at embarrassing, provoking and perhaps dragging Egypt into a border confrontation at a time when Egypt is attempting a transition towards democracy?<\/p>\n

It ought to be said that \u201cnew Egypt\u2019 was also credited for facilitating Palestinian unity, a first step towards taking Hamas out of its international isolation.<\/p>\n

Is it not then possible that Israel\u2019s \u2018nice little war\u2019 was a response to such a dangerous shift in Egyptian policy towards Hamas – and Palestine in general?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

RAMZY BAROUD: Why is Israel bent on discrediting Egypt, exploiting the most sensitive period of its modern history, and destabilizing the border area?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":10455,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[154,124,83,82,171,119],"tags":[5653,982,2279,18300,969,278,861,227,18311,3395,18309,8460,1625,18297,1747,1808,1134,4524,2269,1566,221,18302,4600,2020],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10454"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10454"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10454\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10455"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10454"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10454"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10454"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}