Steinitz: Egypt strengthening Hamas

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By Ryan Jones
October 26, 2005

Israel has no choice but to resist American pressure to permit ?Palestinians? free passage between Gaza and Judea-Samaria as long as Egypt, by passive assistance, continues to strengthen Hamas terrorists in the Strip, senior Likud MK Yuval Steinitz said Wednesday.

Speaking on Israel Radio, Steinitz called on Defense Minister Sha'ul Mofaz to press Egypt to honor its commitment to prevent arms smuggling into Gaza.

Mofaz met later in the day with Egyptian dictator Hosni Mubarak in Cairo.

Steinitz said the message to the Egyptians must be that until you meet your obligations, ?from our perspective, you are not the partners mediating between us and the Palestinians,? a position Cairo has long tried to assume.

Steinitz, who chairs the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, noted that Egypt's lax control of the Gaza-Sinai border was allowing Hamas and other terror groups to gain strength.

?Egypt is, in effect, assisting the strengthening of Hamas, not just regarding Israel,? he said. ?The quantity of weapons are such that, for the first time, we're talking about Hamas reaching military parity with the Palestinian Authority.?

Many in Israel fail to see the logic behind a peace process with the PA if it is both unwilling and unable to meet its primary peace obligation ? the disarming and dismantling of ?Palestinian? terrorist organizations.

Steinitz went on to urge his government to resist renewed American pressure to provide the Palestinian Arabs with free and open passage between Gaza and Judea and Samaria.

Otherwise, he warned, the advanced weapons currently entering Gaza would find their way to Israel's ancient heartland, putting Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and all major Israeli population centers under an unprecedented terrorist threat.

?So the last thing that Israel can do is to allow secure and open movement from [Gaza] to the 'West Bank.'?

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