Repercussions of Eilat Militant Attacks and Palestinian Statehood

The Palestinian militant attacks this past Thursday against Israeli civilians and military personnel -- which left eight Israelis dead and more than thirty others wounded -- on a lone stretch of highway situated on the Egyptian-Israeli border in the northern Sinai Peninsula, only a few dozen miles north of the popular Israeli Red Sea resort of Eilat, couldn't have come at a worse time for the Palestinian Authority. With the rapid approach of the United Nations General Assembly meeting in September, at which the Palestinian Authority will seek both membership in the United Nations, as well as global recognition of a Palestinian State, the last thing that the Palestinians needed was for an explosive -- and deadly -- incident like this to occur.

That something finally happened which might endanger Palestinian aspirations in September, I am not the least bit surprised. As I noted in my three-part series Palestinian Quest For Statehood And UN Resolution 377 this past April, it was a given that someone -- most likely the Israelis, or even Hamas, being as both oppose the U.N. intentions of Mahmoud Abbas and the Palestinian Authority -- would attempt to jeopardize the Palestinian quest for statehood.

At this current time, blame for the deadly attacks against Israel is being placed on a radical Gaza-based militant group known as Popular Resistance Committees. In fact, as you may have already heard, following the attacks on the border highway north of Eilat, the Israeli military attacked the Popular Resistance Committees, and killed at least six Palestinians, including the PRC's top leadership in Rafah, Gaza. Other Palestinians have died since then.

Israeli aircraft have also attacked other militant training centers and facilities in Gaza which are operated by Hamas, even though Hamas has denied any role in the attacks which occurred north of Eilat. Israel rejected Hamas' claim of non-participation, and Ely Karmon -- a member of the International Institute for Counter-Terrorism at the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya, Israel, stated "If Hamas did not give the order, it must have known about plans for such a large-scale attack."

To make matters worse, Israeli officials have also accused Egypt of being too lax in patrolling the northern Sinai Peninusla region, and have stated that the Palestinian militants crossed over into Israel from the Sinai in Egypt. Some Israeli citizens who experienced the attacks even claim that some of their attackers wore Egyptian uniforms. For its part, the military council in Cairo, Egypt -- which took over once Hosni Mubarak fell from power -- has denied the Israeli charges that the militants had crossed through Egyptian territory in order to carry out their attacks.

However, it seems that not all Egyptians are of that persuasion. For example, Gamal Abdel Gawad -- who is the director of the Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies in Cairo -- stated that "The security situation in north Sinai is deteriorating, and now radical militant elements got loose. It is not a remote possibility for them to cross the border and launch attacks against Israeli targets. It makes a lot of sense."

At this current time, Palestinian militants are lobbing rockets towards Ashdod and Ashkelon in Israel; the Egyptian populace is in an anti-Israel uproar because the Israelis accidentally killed three Egyptian military personnel when they retaliated against the militants on the Egyptian-Israeli border in the northern Sinai Desert; and world leaders are doing everything within their power to try to calm the situation between Israel and Egypt before it deteriorates into an even worse situation.

Given the strong anti-Israel sentiment in Egypt, which was intentionally suppressed during the three decades that Hosni Mubarak ruled Egypt, it is difficult to see this dangerous situation cooling down any time soon. World diplomats may be working hard behind the scenes to try to restore calm between the two nations, but the Egyptian masses will not be calmed so easily. They are in fact demanding the ouster of the Israeli ambassador from Egypt. Furthermore, Egypt rejected Israel's apology for the death of the three Egyptian military personnel.

This current explosive situation begs some questions. Is it possible that the three decades of plastic peace which have existed between Egypt and Israel -- paid for with billions of American dollars -- is finally over? Will Israel once again be antagonized by her Arab enemies on all sides as in decades past? Time will certainly tell.

Finally, it is interesting to note that, as of this writing, to my knowledge, Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority has not yet released a statement concerning the militant attacks which occurred this past Thursday. Perhaps Abbas is simply waiting to see Israel's final analysis of the attacks first. Or perhaps he is paralyzed with fear. Abbas is no doubt angry with Hamas, and probably blames them for allowing the attacks to occur.

Whatever the case may be, the Eilat attacks can only serve the interests of Israel, and hurt Palestinian aspirations of statehood. In fact, certain Israeli commentators have already begun to use Abbas' silence as a tool to try to undermine Palestinian aspirations for statehood next month. For example, on the ynetnews.com website, Israeli MK Avi Dichter begins his commentary with the following:

A moment before Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas approaches the UN with a statehood bid, we would expect the PA chairman to make a statement addressing the grave terror attack against Israeli citizens en route to Eilat. Something along the lines of "we shall hunt down the perpetrators and masterminds of the murderous attack and bring them to justice." After all, in our region one pays no excise tax on words. Yet the silence of the chairman and of his Prime Minister, Salam Fayyad, must worry the whole world -- and that includes the UN General Assembly.

Mahmoud Abbas needs to come forward, and fast!