The responsibility for the Rafah firestorm falls on the shoulders of Hamas as much as that of Israel, writes Rasha Saad The volatile situation on the Rafah- Gaza border -- as hundreds of thousands of Gazans poured into the Egyptian city escaping the Israeli siege -- continues to be the focus of the pundits this week. For many, Hamas is to be blamed for the situation. In the London- based Asharq Al-Awsat, Tariq Al-Homayed blamed Hamas for not blaming Israel for the situation in Gaza and instead putting Egypt in the eye of the storm. In an article entitled "How did Egypt fall into the trap?" Al-Homayed wrote that instead of regarding Egypt as a key to solving the crisis, considering all its historical and political weight, the country has been embroiled in a crisis at the hands of Hamas. "This is why Egypt is now trapped, because Hamas decided to escape by moving forward and elevating international pressure from Israel by embroiling Egypt. It imposed a reality, one of Egyptian-Palestinian confrontation instead of Palestinian-Israeli confrontation; today, the whole world is more concerned about the crisis of the Rafah crossing and Egypt than about the [Israeli] siege on Gaza." Al-Homayed compares "the trap" that Egypt has been pushed into with the "same trap" that has been set up for Saudis since the 9/11 attacks in New York and Washington. "The magnitude of harm that has been inflicted upon Saudi Arabia by some Arab countries is much graver than what Riyadh has faced from the West, especially the use of terrorism and terrorists to tarnish the reputation of Saudis," Al-Homayed explains. "The issue of embroiling Egypt is one that should not be underestimated and there should not be calls to live with this situation," Al-Homayed concludes. In the London-based daily Al-Hayat Elias Harfouch wrote that the date when Hamas led its coup against the Palestinian Authority and its institutions in June last year, turned the 14th of that month into a new nakba, or catastrophe, in Palestinian history. That takeover of Gaza, Harfouch contends, was followed by a total neglect of the living conditions of the Palestinians and the imposition of Hamas's actions on these conditions. "Hamas failed to take into consideration that Israel, already hostile to Hamas on principle, would not spare any effort to tighten the noose around the Gaza Strip after it came under the full control of Hamas and to achieve an announced goal, namely to turn the Palestinians in Gaza against the policy of Hamas." According to Harfouch reality and results confirm that the only goal of the rockets which continued to fall on the settlement of Siderot was to inform those who need to be told that Hamas was still playing the lead role in the resistance movement, while the others belong to the ranks of defeatists. "These are the same empty slogans we have unfortunately become accustomed to in the Arab world, and the price of which we have paid repeatedly. They have not fed us bread, but rather have led to complications that always make things worse. It is exactly what happened in Gaza which was already suffering a state of social and economic misery, before the tightening of the Israeli blockade made things far worse." In his article entitled "The Rafah crossing: A new Intifada or an invasion?" Harfouch pointed out that instead of appreciating the Egyptian reaction to the opening of the border crossing, Hamas had the audacity to designate the attempt of the Palestinians to flee their miserable conditions "a third Intifada" along the lines of the two previous uprisings against the Israeli occupation. However, Harfouch insists, the target of this alleged Intifada remains unknown. "Was it against Egypt? Was it against Abu Mazen [Palestine President Mahmoud Abbas]? Or was it actually an uprising by the Gazans against the leadership of Hamas?" Harfouch also questioned if it is correct to describe what happened in Rafah as an Intifada, as Hamas likes to describe it, "or was it an organised invasion of Egyptian territory that took advantage of the living conditions in the Gaza Strip that in effect are the outcome of the Israeli siege on the one hand and Hamas's neglect of the destiny of Gazans on the other?" However, also in Al-Hayat, Patrick Seale sees a missed opportunity for Egypt in this saga. In his article "The fallout from the Gaza earthquake" Seale insists that as Israel's role shrinks, Egypt's will expand. Thus, according to Seale, the situation in Gaza provides Egypt with a major opportunity. "If it conquers its fears and acts boldly -- if it refuses to be cowed by Israel and the US -- it has a chance to recover the leadership of the Arab world. With some vision and imagination, it could demonstrate to the world what can be made of Gaza and its people, once they are allowed some freedom." Seale argues that Egypt must negotiate control of the Rafah crossing directly with Hamas. It can no longer afford to be complicit in Israel's siege of Gaza. Its own Egyptian public opinion, as well as Arab opinion as a whole, will no longer tolerate it. But it needs to go further than that. Seale also advises that Egypt be Gaza's advocate with the international community. "Gaza's infrastructure, shattered by Israel, needs to be rebuilt. Its port and airport need to be brought back to life, and reopened for business. Egypt could benefit commercially because Gaza is a considerable market. Egypt could also benefit politically because helping Gaza rise from the dead could draw the poison from President Mubarak's conflict-ridden relations with the Muslim Brothers, who are his regime's major domestic opponents." If this does not happen, Seale warns, Egypt, under Israeli and American pressure, may attempt to bottle up the Gazans once more, and this could trigger riots in Cairo, which could destabilise President Mubarak's regime. "Egypt must now walk a tightrope between Israeli and American pressure and the new reality of its relations with the Gazans. "The whole question of Gaza's relations with the outside world must now be reviewed. Israel can no longer dominate and control every aspect of Gaza life -- its airspace and territorial waters, its imports and exports, its taxation system, and all movements in and out of the territory."
