Egypt to open Gaza border crossing

[FourScore]

Source: al-Jazeera

Egypt is to permanently open the Rafah border crossing to ease the Israeli blockade on Gaza, Nabil al-Arabi, the country's foreign minister, has said.

Arabi said Egypt would take "important steps to help ease the blockade on Gaza in the few days to come".

Speaking to Al Jazeera on Friday, the minister said Egypt would no longer accept that the Rafah border, Gaza's only crossing that bypasses Israel, remain blocked, describing the decision to seal it off as "shameful".

The announcement came days after Hamas, which controls Gaza, and their secular West Bank rivals Fatah, which controls the Palestinian Authority (PA), agreed to end their rift and form an interim government to prepare for elections...



Read more: http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2011/04/2011429155947718117.html

[ElsewheresDaughter]

1. Good!

[cpwm17]

2. Great!

Now Egypt can stop being a US puppet for Israel. The Egyptians are happy about that.

[defendandprotect]

3. That's a big one -- !!

[aquart]

4. I wonder if there's a link between this and the election deal.

Did Egypt throw this in as an incentive to come together?

Or were the Palestinians simply afraid that their plight would be completely forgotten in the fresh wounds of the Arab Spring?

With realignments happening all over the Arab world, it makes real practical sense for the Palestinians to stand together.

Egypt is opening the gate. It is making noise about abandoning its gas contracts with Israel. These are significant overtures to the Palestinians who were pretty much ignored as NOT EGYPTIAN in the recent uprising.

It certainly increases Israel's isolation in the Middle East. If Israel can't rely on Egypt to stem the flow of arms and other fun items into Gaza...what is going to find its way there? And why does Egypt want it? I would think that Lebanon's fun times with Hezbullah would be an object lesson but people learn at their own pace.

And what about the Bedouins? How does this affect them and their issues with Egypt?

Gonna get interesting.

[UndertheOcean]

5. The worst case scenario is that the Egyptian public might push for a new War (cold?) with Israel.

The peace treaty was something that was imposed from the Top ... we can sugarcoat that all we want but it is the truth.

Israel probably needs to stay a fortress for a number of decades till the Arab public becomes post-Islamic. Don't get me wrong I am ecstatic the Arab Spring is happening despite that fact that Religious Fundamentalists might marginalize the Liberals. The status quo was simply untenable.