The Israel-Egypt-Hamas Triangle in the Sinai
The threat posed by Salafists and other jihadists in the northern Sinai has resulted in Hamas, Egypt and Israel recognizing their mutual interests.
In late July 2012, Ismail Haniyeh, the Hamas prime minister in Gaza, paid a visit to Cairo. He was quite proud of himself and pleased to be there. Mohammed Morsi, or Haniyeh's “Brother,” as the Palestinian called him, had just been elected president of Egypt. Haniyeh, like all the other leaders of Hamas, and in fact, all the people of Gaza, thought that this would be the dawn of a new era in the troubled relationship between Gaza and Egypt. It was an egregious error on his part.
The conversation between Haniyeh and President Morsi was not an easy one. The standard tokens of mutual respect and traditional greetings and pleasantries quickly deteriorated into a scathing dialogue during which Haniyeh could only conclude that Gaza would not appear anywhere near the top of Morsi’s list of priorities. By the time he realized that Morsi was concerned first and foremost with the interests of Egypt and the Muslim Brotherhood, and less with the problems of Gaza, it was too late.
In other words, the Rafah border crossing would not be swung open to accommodate free movement between the Gaza Strip and Egypt. Even more disconcerting, however, was that Morsi put Haniyeh and his movement on probation, during which time they would have to prove that they posed no risk to Egypt’s security. In particular, they were expected to offer proof that Hamas and its Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades did not have a foothold in the Sinai through links to Salafist groups and Global Jihad cells operating out of the no-man’s land where the borders of Israel, Gaza and Egypt converge.
Haniyeh returned to Gaza utterly humiliated. One tangible expression of his frustration with Egypt appeared immediately throughout the Gaza Strip. Billboards depicting Haniyeh and Morsi standing side by side were quickly replaced. Morsi’s image was pulled down and the photo of another “brother,” Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, replaced it.
