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Analysis: Violence Plagues Middle East

Council on Foreign Relations

July 5, 2006
Prepared by: Esther Pan

A week after an Israeli soldier was abducted by Palestinian militants, violence continues to spread in the Palestinian Authority (PA). The government of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert authorized further military operations in Gaza to find the missing soldier, Cpl. Gilad Shalit. Attacks by the Israeli Defense Forces have already destroyed significant sections of the PA's infrastructure, including bridges, roads, and Gaza's only power station (NYT). Israel also arrested more than thirty Hamas cabinet ministers and members of Parliament (al-Jazeera). Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, who briefly went into hiding during the arrests, emerged to accuse the Israeli military campaign of hindering efforts to secure Shalit's release (Guardian). CFR Fellow Steven Simon tells CFR.org's Bernard Gwertzman that the crisis could drag on for some time, as it pits two new weak governments against each other.

The European Union called for Palestinian militants to release the kidnapped Israeli soldier and for Israel to show restraint (PDF) in its military actions. The U.S. government urged the Palestinians to stop all acts of violence and terror and called on Israel to protect civilian lives during its military campaign. Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak is leading an intensive diplomatic effort to mobilize other Middle Eastern countries, including Saudi Arabia, to pressure Syria to help work for a solution. Damascus-based Hamas leader Khalid Meshal is believed to have ordered the kidnapping, and to have authority over the militants holding Shalit (Independent). Meshal's ascendancy is seen by some experts as evidence of a serious division in Hamas between the Damascus-based hard-liners he leads and Haniyeh's Hamas government, which must operate within the Palestinian Authority. Christopher Hamilton of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy says these splits are characteristic of terrorist organizations that attempt to become legitimate political parties.

Read the rest of this article on the cfr.org website.

Copyright 2006 by the Council on Foreign Relations. This material is republished on GlobalSecurity.org with specific permission from the cfr.org. Reprint and republication queries for this article should be directed to cfr.org.