Surprised at Dr. Pipes' Conclusions

Submitted by Alex (United States), Jan 29, 2008 at 18:35

I thought Dr. Pipes favored an Israeli re-takeover of Gaza. Was I wrong, or has his position changed?

Also, what evidence is their either that Egypt would halt rocket fire into Israel if it controlled Gaza or that Egypt would no longer keep Gaza at arms' length (whatever that means)?

A worst-case scenario for Israel were Egypt to own Gaza again, I predict, would be Egypt combining the discontent and increasingly global jihadist orientation of both Gazans and Sinai Bedouins and then displacing them onto Israel through a low intensity conflict, simultaneously asking for (and receiving) more US aid to increase its deterence posture against the conventional means of war which would be Israel's only option, short of ceding some of its own Negev territory to a foreign Arab entity.

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Daniel Pipes replies:

I was against the forced removal of Israelis from Gaza in 2005, yes.

But once it's done, I favor taking advantage of the clean break.

As for the implications of Egypt taking over, it will the topic of my next week's column.