Egypt and Hamas: The Honeymoon that Wasn't

(Media Line-Jerusalem Post) Mohammed Najib - The high hopes Gaza's Hamas leaders had in the Egyptian revolution have been swallowed up by growing acrimony and traditional distrust. Now the two sides are sniping over who is responsible for the fuel shortage in Gaza that has been behind weeks of blackouts. Cairo accuses Hamas of turning a blind eye to a flood of 1,300 stolen cars being smuggled from Egypt into Gaza and allowing drugs grown there to be shipped out. They also accuse Hamas of being behind the circulation of some $40 million of counterfeit U.S. currency in Egypt. Hamas' expectations that the military government that replaced Mubarak would open the border between Gaza and Egypt have been disappointed; traffic through the sole crossing point at Rafah is severely restricted. Over the past few weeks, dozens of Hamas field commanders were blocked from crossing.


2012-03-23 00:00:00

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