(Commentary) Evelyn Gordon - As Egypt reopened its Rafah border crossing with Gaza after four years of almost total closure, a binding international agreement, brokered by the U.S. and signed by Israel and the Palestinian Authority, has just effectively been torn up. The 2005 agreement laid down detailed provisions for how Gaza's border crossings would be run following Israel's withdrawal from the territory. The European monitors stationed at Rafah quickly proved useless at preventing the passage of terrorists and contraband. But at a time when the world is demanding that Israel make far more dangerous territorial concessions in the West Bank in exchange for yet another piece of paper containing "robust" security provisions, it's worth noting just how flimsy such pieces of paper are. When the world is so patently unwilling to insist that previous Israeli-Palestinian agreements be honored, why does it still think Israel should entrust its security to yet another one?
2011-05-31 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive