Gaza reverting to Egyptian control

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By Ryan Jones
October 11, 2005

While Israel's withdrawal from Gaza was hailed as a ?Palestinian? victory, it appears Egypt is taking home spoils from the current terrorist war.

Egypt lost control of the Gaza Strip to Israel during its wars against the Jewish state in 1948 and 1956, though Israel promptly left the territory in hopes of peace. When Gaza fell to Israeli forces following yet more Egyptian belligerency in 1967, Jerusalem decided to hold on to the volatile coastal strip.

Cairo failed in the 1973 Yom Kippur War to retake the former launch-pad for aggression against the Jews.

But what it could not gain through strength of arms, Egypt seems to have obtained by virtue of its dominance over the Palestinian Authority and its terrorist proxies.

The Egyptians are now involved ?in every facet of the [PA] in Gaza,? a PA source told Middle East Newsline. ?It is correct to say that major decisions are not taken without Egypt's approval.?

Those decisions include complying with PA commitments to fight anti-Israel terror.

When Islamic forces fired over 40 rockets at southern Israel following Jerusalem's surrender of Gaza last month, PLO chief Mahmoud Abbas threatened to unleash his forces on Hamas for the ill-timed move.

He failed, however, to secure Egyptian approval, and Cairo instead itself ordered Hamas to stop firing on Israel.

Cairo's influence is of little surprise to regional observers, considering the Palestinian Authority is just another name for the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), an umbrella group established by Egypt in 1964 as a means of consolidating terrorist efforts to oust the Jews from the Middle East.

Egypt also maintains ties with Hamas and other Islamic groups in Gaza, which have displayed an unquestionable willingness to follow Cairo's lead.

The Egyptians reject Israeli and Western demands that such groups be dismantled.

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