Gaza might be forced on Egypt--But with what result?

Submitted by Gene Taglia (United States), Feb 12, 2008 at 02:37

If a scenario similar to that suggested by Dr. Pipes were to occur and Egypt had to assume control of Gaza, the most likely outcome would be the fall of the Egyptian government and/or war with Israel. Mubarak, like General Musharraf in Pakistan and King Abdullah in Jordan, in varying degrees, is in a precarious and nearly impossible situation.

All three have countries plagued by Islamic terrorists and are trying to keep order and maintain themselves in power, with substantial portions of the populace and military more favorably disposed to the terrorists than the government. This precludes using the necessary force to crush the terrorists and limits their action to whatever sporadic killings and arrests they can get by with, keeping things halfway under control without provoking revolt.

These limitations would apply even more to Egypt in Gaza, which seems to be crawling with heavily armed, well trained terrorists from a dozen different groups. If Egypt doesn't mount a major military operation to destroy the terrorists, they will continue to attack Israel from Gaza and eventually the IDF will have to come to Gaza to wipe them out. What then? Maybe Mubarak goes to war with Israel, maybe terrorists take over Egyptian government and they go to war with Israel.

Unless Israel allows itself to be destroyed, there is no good outcome for Mubarak.

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