Closing the Paths Between Egypt and Gaza
Photo: Wikipedia/ Marius Arnesen
First, Egyptian authorities closed the Rafah border crossing, the only passage between Egypt and the Gaza Strip. Maher Abu Sabha, director of border crossings in Gaza, told the Jerusalem Post that the crossing would be closed indefinitely due to violence from the recent unrest. This means that foreigners and medical patients waiting to get to Cairo and beyond, and Gazans and religious pilgrims (the Muslim holiday of Ramadan began three days ago) waiting to get back in to the Strip, are effectively trapped due to the closure. In an effort to remedy this, the crossing opened for a few hours earlier this week to allow for controlled passage, but this may have been a one-time exception.
Second, the Egyptian military has shut down the Gaza tunnels, flooding them and firing explosives inside to ensure they are unusable. The tunnels fuel an illegal and sophisticated smuggling operation into the Gaza Strip.
For Israel, there are obvious benefits to the crackdown. The trafficking of weapons that is rampant in these tunnels has nearly come to a standstill as a result of the closure. More from the Times of Israel:
Of course, weapons aren’t the only thing smuggled through the tunnels. Food, gas, building supplies, and other necessary goods are also brought in, and their halt has caused problems for Palestinians. This current situation highlights just one of the many problems of living in an enclave — Gaza — that is run by a terror organization.Israeli officials confirmed reports of intense Egyptian activity that brought smuggling through the tunnels to a near standstill. All mass smuggling stopped on June 30, officials said, the same day as the mass rally and military decree that brought down the Morsi government, after Egyptian engineers flooded the tunnels with water.According to officials, no weapons, people or goods are passing through the tunnels. The Egyptians feared that Hamas agents would flow into Egypt to help the Muslim Brotherhood in the event of deterioration.
Access to goods essential to life shouldn’t have to come through muddy underground tunnels. There shouldn’t have to be a black market for clothes, livestock, or car parts. And, in fact, Israel facilitates the delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza on a daily basis, and it happens in a regular, orderly fashion.
But Hamas, which rules Gaza, is not Israel. The poisonous nature of Hamas’ leadership — its abuses of power, its ideological hatred of all things Israeli, Jewish, and Western, its continued violence against the Jewish state — means that Israel must look at the bottom line. No smuggled fuel means that some Gazans will go without power for a time. But stemming the tide of illegal weapons may mean that innocent Israeli lives will be saved. If you were Israeli, wouldn’t you say that the benefits of stopping smuggling far outweigh the liabilities?
Author: Stand For Israel | July 11, 2013
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