Egyptian security forces seized a cache of heavy weapons in mountains roughly 48 miles south of Rafah the Gaza strip.

One report said that 30 anti-aircraft missiles, anti-tank weapons, 3,000 bullets and rifles were confiscated, but that no suspects were caught.

Hamas’ weapons smuggling operations continue from Egypt into Gaza. The weapons, training, and support continues to come from Iran.

Given that Israel told Egypt that it’s Arab neighbor must halt smuggling of weapons and other materials into Gaza as a pre-condition to any possible ceasefire with Hamas, this incident should not come as a surprise.

Egyptian sources said that the mountain region where the weapons where discovered was also used by terrorist groups charged with the 2004 and 2005 bombings of Egyptian resorts in Taba and Sharm el-Sheikh.

Hamas operative Nader Abu Shaban blew himself up at home in Gaza City on Saturday, May 31st while handling explosives. He injured 16 other people in the blast.

U.S. State Department just withdrew the Fulbright Scholarships that it gave to Palestinian students living in Gaza who were going to study for advanced degrees in America.


The Times report suggests that the State Department is blaming Israel, saying that they withdrew the scholarships because Israel has not granted Gaza students permission to leave.

Abdulrahman Abdullah, one Gaza student who was awarded a Fulbright, candidly told a Times reporter: “I am against Hamas. Their acts and policies are wrong. Israel talks about a Palestinian state. But who will build that state if we can get no training?”

Abdullah told the paper that he wanted to use the award to study for an MBA at one of a number of American universities.

Some Israeli lawmakers immediately expressed shock at the U.S. action.

“This could be interpreted as collective punishment,” complained Rabbi Michael Melchior, chairman of the Parliament’s education committee, during the hearing. “This policy is not in keeping with international standards or with the moral standards of Jews, who have been subjected to the deprivation of higher education in the past. Even in war, there are rules.”

More telling of the U.S. Administration’s screw-up is that, according to senior officials from Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s office, American officials never even contacted them about rescinding the Gaza students’ Fulbright cases. They told the Times that if the U.S. had made them aware of the situation affecting Gaza students awarded Fulbright scholarships, they would facilitate them.

The most telling criticism came from Natan Sharansky, the respected former refusenik and former Israeli government official:

“We correctly complain that the Palestinian Authority is not building civil society, but when we don’t help build civil society this plays into the hands of Hamas…The Fulbright is administered independently, and people are chosen for it due to their talents.”

The U.S. committed what Israelis would term a fashla, a foul-up using the strongest possible Hebrew vernacular.

On Sunday, a Lebanese newspaper quoted a high ranking Egyptian security source who discussed restoring security to the Gaza’s wild, wild west-styled Rafah border crossing.


According to Al Akhbar, the Egyptian security official said that there was “full agreement between Israelis and Palestinians on the Egyptian vision of calm in the Gaza Strip.” That claim only appears credible if the Palestinians alleged to be in “full agreement” were aligned with Mahmoud Abbas, President of the Palestinian Authority.

This Hamas gunman inside a Rafah border crossing security checkpoint shows the true meaning of the terrorist group’s intentions:

Real security along Gaza’s border with Egypt would mean an iron-clad halt to the arms smuggling supplied by Iran, Syria, and others to Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad in Gaza.

The smuggling continues, and with it, daily terror attacks with Hamas rockets against Israeli civilians.

The Egyptians can and must do more to stop this weapons smuggling.

Photo credit: Ibraheem Abu Mustafa, Reuters