GAZA

Posted at 7:41 a.m. ET

Gaza remains the top international story, but the story isn't limited to Hamas rocket attacks and Israeli air action, both of which continue.  One of the fascinating aspects is the verbal war against Hamas waged by Egypt, the most important Arab country.  From The Jerusalem Post: 

Stepping up the rhetoric in what has escalated into an all-out verbal war between Hamas and Egypt over the Gaza government's perceived responsibility for the devastating results of Operation Cast Lead, a senior Egyptian parliamentarian on Thursday accused Hamas leaders of abandoning the Palestinians of Gaza to their fate.

"Where are the Hamas leaders now, when the residents of Gaza are getting killed? All of Hamas's leadership is in bunkers," Muhammad Bassiouny, the head of the parliament's foreign affairs and defense committee, charged in an interview with an Egyptian television channel.

This is extraordinary, coming from an Arab country.  But the statement masks an even larger issue:  Hamas is seen as a puppet of Iran.  Egypt, in particular, views Iran as a dire threat, a non-Arab country attempting to impose itself on the Arab world.  So the Gaza issue has implications well beyond the local military action.

Meanwhile, the Egyptian daily Al-Ahram reported Thursday that Egyptian security forces were in pursuit of a Hamas terror cell that had recently infiltrated Egypt - for fear of a terror attack on Egyptian soil. According to the report, Egyptian authorities were also concerned over the possibility that the cell would try to target security forces along the Gaza border.

The paper reported that Egyptian forces had arrested 59 Palestinians in the city of Al Qantarah El Sharqiyya in the northeast of the country. The fugitives from Gaza were unarmed, the report said, but authorities were nevertheless taking steps to return them to the Strip.

Meanwhile, the fighting goes on, with the possibility of an Israeli land incursion into Gaza to punch out Hamas strongholds.  

Some American journalists are expressing surprise that the president-elect has issued no statement on the Gaza situation.  Some in the media don't completely buy the Obama stand that we have "one president at a time," a line originated, by the way, by Richard M. Nixon during the transition of power from Lyndon B. Johnson in 1968-9.  We can speculate that Obama hopes the Gaza fighting will be over by the time he's inaugurated, and wants to deal with Mideast issues with a clean slate.

January 1, 2009.