Ha'aretz Editorial, 27.01.08

For 34 years, since the separation of forces after the Yom Kippur War, the Israel-Egyptian front has been quiet. The peace agreement signed by Anwar Sadat and Menachem Begin has been stable and firm for more than a quarter of a century, despite fluctuations of governments and conflicts on other fronts. Peace with Egypt is one of Israel's greatest strategic assets, although it is a cool peace. The entire Arab world followed it in moving ahead toward coming to terms with Israel.
Over the past week danger has hung over this peace. Events on the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt threaten to tear the delicate fabric of Cairo-Jerusalem relations. At the same time, they also jeopardize the yet-to-be-attained peace between Israel and the Palestinians, at a fragile moment in the process the Bush administration is trying to drive forward. If Egypt does get a grip on the situation and resolve the problem of the breached border between the two parts of Rafah, the hope of moving ahead with an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement this year could shatter. The situation on the Israel-Egypt border will escalate unless joint action can keep the terror that has seeped from Gaza into Sinai from spreading into the Negev and the rest of Israel. The alert announced in the south, including the closure of the border to travelers this weekend, reflects the seriousness of the situation. In the next stage Israel might have to decide how to prevent terror attacks plotted by Palestinians on Egyptian soil, at the fateful point before their perpetrators disappear on their way to Israel.
It is not the question of responsibility for the deterioration of the situation that is before us - all parties share in that. Egypt was adamant in advance that its peace with Israel would not be a separate peace, and that Israel would have to solve its conflict with the Palestinians. Israel's stance regarding Egypt's status in the Gaza Strip has undergone extreme transformations. Israel's unilateral withdrawal from Gaza combined desirable steps (the evacuation of settlements) with problematic ones (the abandonment of sites in northern Gaza from which missiles could be launched at the northern Negev as well as the Philadephi Route, contrary to the security appendix to the agreement with Egypt).
The ongoing Egyptian failure to seal the border with Gaza, in addition to the immediate threat of terror that has already set out from Gaza to Sinai, will push Israel against its will into a costly and continual military operation in the Rafah area. Such an operation will not only cost many Israeli and Palestinian lives but will also make it very difficult for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to continue the peace process.
The helplessness of the Egyptian government, out of fear of projecting a harsh image toward the Palestinian population (in contrast to the Hamas government), is understandable but not justifiable. A country has the right to prevent mass infiltration into its territory, as in the case of the United States with Mexico. When regional peace comes to the Middle East, of the kind that exists among the countries of the European Union, the internal borders will also be opened.
At the Annapolis conference, President George W. Bush dictated that there would be meetings every two weeks between the Israeli and Palestinian leaders. The crisis in the south has changed the priorities. An immediate summit is needed between Egypt's president and Israel's prime minister, with or without a senior U.S. presence, to administer emergency treatment of the threats to peace.