Terror in Egypt

The death toll from the explosions in Egypt is around 40 with 160 injured,
most of them Israelis. Although the Israel Govt. issued a warning to
Israelis that they should not visit Sinai at this time because of "concrete
warnings of a terror attack," ca. 25,000 Israelis were in Sinai. An exodus
of Israelis from Sinai is now underway.
Most of the damage and deaths occurred in the Hilton Hotel in Taba that was
originally within Israel and was built by Israelis. It was returned to
Egypt as part of the peace treaty. The border to Eilat is within walking
distance of the hotel. Apparently a car or truck bomb was exploded inside
the lobby bringing down the front section of the 10 story edifice.
Needless to say there was probably little or no security in Egypt, and it is
amazing to me that so many Israelis were prepared, after repeated warnings,
and what happened in Mombasa when an Israeli Resort was blown up, that so
many would risk their lives so readily. The Egyptian authorities have
apparently cooperated fully with the Israeli rescue and medical operations.
Most of the wounded have been taken to hospital in Eilat and Beer Sheva.
The attacks in Ras a-Sultan and Nueiba down the Egyptian Red Sea coast have
not been fully described yet, but were not as serious as the Taba incident.
Clearly these attacks will have a serious effect on future Israeli and other
tourism to Sinai and to Egypt. The last terrorist attack in Egypt occurred
in 1995 when about 60 European tourists were shot dead in an attack in
southern Egypt.
The groups that claimed responsibility for the current attacks are not well
known. It is unclear if they are connected with Hamas, as revenge for the
current Israeli campaign in Gaza, or by an al Qaeda linked group to simply
kill Israelis. In either case, the Egyptian authorities will be very
concerned since they thought that they had destroyed the indigenous Moslem
Brotherhood terror groups, that were largely behind the development of Hamas
in Gaza, and al Qaeda in Saudi Arabia/Afghanistan in the first place. If
this coordinated attack was indeed planned and carried out by Egyptians,
then one can expect serious repercussions within Egypt. Although many
Egyptians are ambivalent about the peace treaty with Israel, they are
fiercely nationalistic, and will not be happy about these attacks carried
out on their soil.
At the same time as these attacks, there were attacks on the Sheraton Hotel
in Baghdad and in Kabul, just before the elections there. This emphasizes
the international nature of the Islamic terrorist threat. But, at the same
time, Europeans make a deliberate mental note that separates attacks on
Israelis from the other attacks around the world. As far as most of them
are concerned Israel deserves these attacks for mistreatment of the
Palestinians ("disproportionate" responses) and for "causing" the whole
phenomenon of Islamic terrorism in the first place. Many Europeans will be
impatient with Israelis for making any fuss about these further Israeli
civilian deaths when so many (ca. 95) Palestinians have been killed in Gaza.
Of course, they prefer to ignore the fact that the vast majority of these
were Hamas terrorists and other gunmen, and that Israel's operation in Gaza
was initiated only because of the constant bombardment of Kassam rockets
into Israeli territory.
The tactics of these attacks seems more like an al Qaeda group than
Palestinian, and they clearly had good intelligence on a "soft spot" in
Israeli security. Israel cannot control what happens in other countries,
however close it is to our borders. In future, let the Israelis visit the
Negev instead of the Sinai, where they will be much safer.