Quotes of the week—follow the links to read the whole thing.
Without the benefit of surprise, Thursday's attackers will be hard pressed to maintain their offensive in the coming days. But the possibility that the assault was just the opening round of a new irregular war emanating from Sinai cannot be ruled out. Unfortunately, due to the IDF's institutional opposition to confronting emerging threats before they become deadly, Israel faces the prospect of escalated aggression from Sinai with no clear strategy for contending with the enemy actors operating in the peninsula.
This enemy system includes Hamas, Muslim Brotherhood, and al-Qaida-affiliated Islamic terror cells. It also includes the Egyptian military and security forces operating in the area, whose intentions towards Israel are at best unclear. . . .
As the world media ecstatically reported on the photogenic anti-Mubarak protesters in Tahrir Square, almost no attention was paid to the insurgency unfolding in Sinai. Shortly after the protests began in Cairo in mid-January, Hamas sent forces over the border into Egyptian Rafah and El-Arish to attack police stations with rifles and RPGs. Hamas fighters reportedly went as far south as Suez. There they joined other terror forces in bombing and raiding the police station in the town that abuts the Suez Canal. In consortium with local elements, Hamas carried out the first of five bombings so far of Egypt's gas pipeline to Israel and Jordan. . . .
It is unclear how effective the latest Egyptian military deployment had been until Thursday's cross-border attacks on Israel had been. What is clear enough is that Israel cannot expect to receive serious cooperation from the Egyptian military in combating the enemy forces emanating from Sinai. Indeed, at this point it is impossible to rule out the possibility that Egyptian military personnel participated in the murderous attacks.
Caroline Glick, “Blood in the Streets,”Townhall, August 19, 2011
Dramatic gains by rebels in recent days suggest for the first time in the 6-month-old uprising that Libyan leader Moammar Kadafi is losing his grip on power as emboldened opposition forces push closer to the capital, Tripoli. . . .
A couple hours after the rebels said they had attacked Tripoli, state television ran what appeared to be a live audio message from Kadafi. . . .
“Libyans wanted to enjoy a peaceful Ramadan," news services quoted Kadafi as saying. "Instead they have been made into refugees. What are we? Palestinians?"
Jeffrey Fleishman, “In Libya, the tide is turning against Moammar Kadafi,” Los Angeles Times, August 20, 2011
Iran reportedly has withdrawn some funding from Hamas over the Gaza terrorist group's refusal to hold rallies supporting Syrian President Bashar Assad. . . .
The sources also claimed that funds to Hamas from Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood also have dried up, as the Brotherhood has switched its focus to funding uprisings related to the Arab Spring
“Report: Iran cuts Hamas funds over Syria,” JTA, August 22, 2011
What does Qaddafi’s departure mean? First, what it doesn’t mean is that the United States and NATO are powerful actors in the region. It took nearly six months for the full might of NATO, bombarding every Libyan tank and armored personnel carrier that moved, decimating Qaddafi’s command-and-control system, and serving as the air wing of the fractious Libyan opposition, to clear the way to Tripoli. . . .
And we can all hope and pray that the “Libyan model”—an armed opposition backed by US and NATO air power—isn’t the model for Syria or, worse, Iran. At the very least, President Assad of Syria will look at Libya and draw the appropriate conclusion, namely, that he must at all costs prevent the emergence of a Syrian “Benghazi.” . . .
So who’s in charge in Libya now? We don’t know. Qaddafi wasn’t entirely wrong when he said that he was under assault by Islamists, though Islamists were probably not the main component of the opposition and the so-called Transitional National Council (TNC). Presumably, the TNC is being ferried by NATO in Tripoli today. As Butch Cassidy once asked: “Who are these guys?” I guess we’ll find out, if they don’t assassinate each other while fighting over power in the meantime. In the end, it doesn’t really matter who controls Libya, except to Libyans.
Robert Dreyfuss, “The Fall of Qaddafi,”The Nation, August 22, 2011
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said Wednesday that Libya's crisis is just beginning with the fall of Moammar Gadhafi's government. . . .
Libyans hunting Moammar Gadhafi offered a $2 million bounty on Gadhafi's head and amnesty for anyone who kills or captures him as rebels battled Wednesday to clear the last pockets of resistance from the capital, Tripoli.
Asked about such efforts to hunt for Gadhafi, Chavez said they reflect a "madness let loose."
"What the Yankee empire and the European powers ... want is Libya's oil," Chavez said. . . .
Chavez said Tuesday that Venezuela would continue to recognize Gadhafi as Libya's leader and would refuse to recognize a rebel-led interim government.
On Wednesday, he denounced the U.S. role in the conflict, saying it represents "the madness of an empire."
"They've destroyed a country and they continue destroying it," Chavez said. "How many Libyan children have died?"
“Chavez: Libya's Tragedy Begins With Gadhafi's Fall,” Associated Press, August 24, 2011
Hundreds of Egyptians gathered Friday outside the Israeli embassy in Cairo in what was supposed to be a "million-man march" calling on the government to expel Israel's ambassador.
Most Egyptian protest groups announced that they would participate in the demonstration to expel the ambassador over the border incident last week in which five Egyptian policemen were killed by the IDF. However, the protesters who actually arrived were far fewer in number.
Avi Issacharoff, Barak Ravid and DPA, “'Million man' anti-Israel rally in Cairo attracts only hundreds,” Haaretz, August 26, 2011
Lawmakers in Iraqi Kurdish region on Friday demanded neighbouring Turkey apologize for a week of air strikes across their border and called for a closure of Turkish military bases inside Iraqi territory.
Tensions have flared between Turkey and Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdish region after local officials reported a Turkish air strike killed seven civilians on Sunday, triggering protests in the capital Arbil and other towns.
Turkey launched its first strikes in more than a year on suspected Kurdish PKK bases in Iraq after more than 40 members of its security forces were killed in Turkey over the last month in PKK assaults. . . .
“We demand an end to the presence of Turkish military bases and their intelligence agencies in Kurdistan's territory," the Iraqi Kurdish parliament said in a statement. "We demand the Turkish government make a formal apology to the people and the Kurdistan government."
“Kurdish lawmakers demand Turkish raid apology,” Today’s Zaman, August 26, 2011
Egyptian journalist Mohamed abd al-Raouf told me the entire tourism industry in his country is likely to resist the Muslim Brotherhood because Islamism in anything but its weakest possible form will destroy business. The AKP hasn’t harmed tourism in Turkey, but it hasn’t placed a ban on alcohol, covered up women, or done much of anything, really, that makes vacationers think of the Saudis, the Iranian regime, or the Taliban. The Muslim Brotherhood, though, just announced it wants to regulate the behavior of foreign tourists who visit beach resorts like Taba and Sharm el-Sheikh.
“Beach tourism,” said Mohamed Saad al-Katatny from the Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party, “must take the values and norms of our society into account. We must place regulations on tourists wishing to visit Egypt, which we will announce in advance.”
He’s proposing a law that would ban the wearing of shorts and bikinis on Egypt’s beaches.
Michael Totten, “The Muslim Brotherhood Wants to Regulate Foreign Tourists,” Commentary, August 26, 2011
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