Wednesday, January 14, 2009

 

Ingress and Egress Regarding Gaza

It appears that when the last Israeli left the Gaza on September 12, 2005, the border crossings at Erez, Karni, Kissufim, and Sufa were closed to Palestinians seeking to get out of the Gaza strip. Rafah, in between Gaza and Egypt was left to the Egyptians and the Palestinians so it appears that it was open to traffic both ways. Karni may or may not have been open to humanitarian aid entering into Gaza, but humanitarian aid was getting into Gaza somewhere and not just through Egypt. Then the mists of time swirl and the picture is hazier. Then in November, 2005, Secretary of State Condi Rice made the Israelis, Egyptians and Palestinians agree to open Rafah and Karni was going to be open to truck and then bus traffic, in convoys, between Gaza and the West Bank. The EU ran the crossing at Rafah for about a year but then began to close it from time to time.

How it is that the Europeans and Egyptians don't let much travel between Gaza and the rest of the world via Egypt (at least above ground) is lost in time as well. Does anyone make the case that the Egyptians have closed the border at Rafah because the Israeli's asked them to? Anyone, anyone? Bueller?

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Comments:
Rog,

My understanding is that the Egyptians restrict ingresss and egress at Rafah b/c they want to retrict access to the riff-raff, to whit, Hamas. Hamas is an Islamic extremist group w/ ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, which is the chief opposition to the Egyptian government. Recall that Anawr Sadat was assassinated by Muslim extremists. I am quite certasin that Hosni Mubarak remembers.

T
 
I agree this is a primary reason, but is it the only reason?
 
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