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Thursday, May 6, 2010
Weekly Commentary: Egypt Not Serious About Stopping Smuggling?

Weekly Commentary: Egypt Not Serious About Stopping Smuggling?

Dr. Aaron Lerner Date: 6 May 2010

Time and again both analysts and officials have claimed the Egypt genuinely
wants to stop the smuggling into Gaza.

Yet after close to two years the much touted American tunnel detecting
gizmos haven’t put a dent in the smuggling between Egypt and the Gaza Strip.

And today BBC News correspondent Jon Donnison revealed that Gazans are
already cutting through Egypt’s multi-million dollar steel barrier at the
affordable cost of $1,000 a tunnel hole.

So what’s the real story?

Is Egypt serious about stopping the smuggling or just going through the
motions?

One thing is certain: if Egypt wanted to it could readily detect and stop
the tremendous flow of material reaching the miniscule Egypt-Gaza border.

After all, we aren’t talking about a few sacks of contraband being whisked
through the desert in the middle of the night on the backs of camels. We are
talking about literally hundreds of truckloads making their way to within at
most a few hundred yards from the border.

A fleet of trucks that can be detected, stopped, inspected and seized.

There is no question about it. If instead of investing in gizmos and steel
walls the Egyptians bulldozed a sterile border zone running a few thousand
meters in from the Gaza border the remaining tunneling operations would
require a magnitude of activity that any serious Egyptian intelligence
operation could readily detect.

So is Egypt serious about stopping the smuggling or just going through the
motions?

And if Egypt isn’t serious about stopping the smuggling, why is Israel
essentially silent on the matter?

Dr. Aaron Lerner, Director IMRA (Independent Media Review & Analysis)
(Mail POB 982 Kfar Sava)
Tel 972-9-7604719/Fax 972-3-7255730
INTERNET ADDRESS: imra@netvision.net.il
Website: http://www.imra.org.il

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