Word: egypts
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...Israel's deaf ear to Sarkozy's plea has raised the diplomatic stakes involved. Although the French President's trip to Egypt, Syria and Lebanon had been set long ago, stops in Ramallah and Jerusalem have been added to discuss "possible paths to peace" with various leaders. Elysée officials say Sarkozy won't be advancing any plans for resolving longer-term conflicts but rather seeking to use his influence and rare good relations with major players in the area to get the fighting to stop. "For now, all other questions are secondary to the issue of restoring peace...
...having endorsed Israel's right to respond to Hamas' rockets during his election campaign, may find that his present silence will cost him friends across the Middle East. The Gaza attack has strengthened Arab radicals while silencing the voices of moderate states once willing to improve ties with Israel. Egypt is in an especially tight spot: having brokered the old cease-fire and sealed its border with Gaza to lock in Hamas, the Egyptian government of President Hosni Mubarak is now being accused - by his own people and the larger Arab world - of looking the other way while Gaza burns...
...Egypt, of course, shares Abbas' hostility toward Hamas, originally a creation of the banned but widely popular Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood. Earlier this year, Hamas created a crisis for the Egyptian regime by blowing a hole in the wall at Rafah, allowing Palestinians to pour into Egypt to buy up basic supplies. Embarrassed and facing domestic and Arab pressure, President Hosni Mubarak left the breach open for the best part of a week before sealing it and renewing Egypt's insistence that it would open the border crossing only to Abbas' men. Now, in the midst of a new political firestorm...
...Egypt's own escalating conflict with Hamas makes Cairo an unlikely mediator this time around. Instead, Egypt has been seeking help from other regional players, particularly Turkey - which has good relations with Syria, the regional player with the most influence over Hamas. In the power struggle that pits Egypt and the Palestinian Authority against Hamas and its regional backers, the Islamists may be betting that the backlash sparked by the Israeli raids will weaken the resolve of Cairo and Ramallah to keep Hamas' hands off Rafah. But Cairo and Ramallah may be hoping that the punishment inflicted on Gaza...
Hamas' demand on the border crossings, though, is directed as much at Egypt as it is at Israel. Hamas' primary objective, in fact, is to open the border gate between Egypt and Gaza at Rafah, which was closed by Cairo at the request of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas when his forces were driven out of Gaza by Hamas 18 months ago. Rafah, as the Palestinians' only entry point to the outside world not controlled by Israel, represents the closest thing to a symbol of Palestinian sovereignty, which is precisely why Hamas is so keen to control...