Showdown at Rafah

Egypt and Hamas, the Islamic masters of Gaza, are playing a dangerous game of brinksmanship. On Friday, when Egyptian police with riot shields began shooting in the air to stop mobs of Palestinians from surging across from Gaza, all it took was for Hamas gunmen to appear silhouetted along the collapsed security wall, and the rows of Egyptian police faded away.

Next Hamas cranked up bulldozers and knocked down large swaths of the concrete and metal wall dividing the Palestinian enclave from Egypt. One Hamas commander in Rafah explained that: “As long as Israel keeps us locked in a siege, we will keep this border open with Egypt.” Before dawn on Wednesday, Palestinian militants blew nearly 20 holes in the border fence, allowing Gazans to dash into Egypt to buy food and supplies denied under Israel's blockade. Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak imposed the siege on Gaza's 1.5 million people as punishment for militants firing rockets into southern Israel.

It was flawed logic. Even with the siege, Palestinian rockets kept falling on Israeli communities near the Gaza fence. And now that Hamas has forcibly broken through the blockade, Israel is in a quandary over how to deal with Hamas. As a first option, Israeli warplanes on Thursday carried out two air strikes, killing several senior Hamas militants near the destroyed fence with Egypt. But Israeli officials expressed worries that with the Egyptian border wide open, militants will start bringing in large quantities of weapons and men into Gaza. And, Israelis also said that Gaza militants and suicide bombers might now be free to sneak into southern Israel through Sina desert, which is not fenced off. Israel has warned its tourists to leave Sinai's Red Sea resorts.

Most likely, Israel will tighten restrictions on fuel and other essential supplies –-items that Gazans couldn't care across on their Egyptian shopping spree. If so, it won't be long before Gazan's again feel the squeeze of Israel's sanctions.

Egypt's stand-off with Hamas on Friday was all the more embarrassing because hours earlier, President Hosni Mubarak was reprimanded by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice who urged Egypt to secure the border with Gaza. Israel and the U.S. both consider Hamas to be a terrorist organization since it has vowed to destroy the Jewish state. But it is doubtful that Egypt can close the Gaza border and scoop back the tens of thousands of Gazans who swarmed into Egypt without help from Hamas, and this has certainly raised the Islamic militant's stature. Once again, Hamas has shown that when it comes to Gaza, they are the force to be reckoned with, not Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas –the weak favorite of Israel and the U.S.

by Tim McGirk/Jerusalem