Gaza Terrorist Attack Puts Both Hamas and Muslim Brotherhood In Bad Light

Keeping in mind that yesterday's terrorist attack on both Egypt and Israel was carried out by Palestinian terrorists from Gaza using Hamas smuggling tunnels, it is no wonder that Hamas publicly condemned the terrorist attack that killed Egyptian soldiers.

For their part, Palestinians fear deterioration in Egypt ties after attack:

Palestinians have expressed fear that Sunday night's terror attack along the Egyptian-Israeli border would hinder efforts to lift Egyptian restrictions imposed on residents of the Gaza Strip.

Egypt's decision to shut the Rafah border crossing in the aftermath of the attack drew sharp criticism from Palestinians.

Musa Abu Marzouk, a senior Hamas official, described the decision as "collective punishment." He vehemently denied that some of the terrorists had emerged from the Gaza Strip.

Hamas and other Palestinian groups, meanwhile, dismissed claims about the involvement of terrorists from the Gaza Strip in the attack, which resulted in the deaths of 16 Egyptian soldiers.

But Hamas is not the only ones to be embarrassed by the terrorist attack from Gaza. Jonathan Tobin points out the pressure the attack puts on the Muslim Brotherhood as well:

The attack is an embarrassment in more than one way for the Egyptian government that is now dominated by the Muslim Brotherhood. The Brotherhood is allied with Hamas, which along with Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi, condemned the incident. But the lax security in the Sinai since the fall of the Mubarak regime has led not only to Sinai becoming a lawless region where terrorists roam freely. Even more important, the attack, which is just the latest attempt by Gaza-based Palestinians to assault Israel via the Sinai, makes it clear the establishment of an independent Palestinian state in all but name in Gaza has made it a terrorist enclave that presents a danger to Egypt as well as Israel. Though Israel is the boogeyman of Egyptian popular culture and the focus of a relentless hate campaign in the media there, it may turn out that the Palestinians are the real threat. The question is whether the slaughter of their soldiers — a crime that cannot be blamed on Israel — willl motivate the Egyptian army and the government in Cairo to crack down on both Sinai and Hamas-run Gaza.

Considering how the terrorist attack casts both Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood in a bad light--putting pressure on both--it is no wonder that the two groups were able to put their heads together and come up with the perfect solution:

Hamas, Egypt Brotherhood say Israelis behind Sinai attack

The Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas each blamed Israel Monday for orchestrating a terrorist attack in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula which killed 16 Egyptian soldiers and wounded seven a day earlier. The accusations prompted a swift dismissal from Israel, which was also targeted in the attack.

Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood said on its website that the attack "can be attributed to Mossad" and was an attempt to thwart Islamist President Mohamed Morsy.

"Even the person who says this when he looks at himself in the mirror does not believe the nonsense he is uttering," said Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor.

According to the Brotherhood statement, the Mossad "has been seeking to abort the revolution since its inception and the proof of this is that it gave instructions to its Zionist citizens in Sinai to depart immediately a few days ago." The group added: "(It) also draws our attention to the fact that our forces in Sinai are not enough to protect it and our borders, which makes it imperative to review clauses in the signed agreement between us and the Zionist entity.".

I suppose that if you follow Iran's lead in claiming that Israel was behind the terrorist bombing attack in Bulgaria that killed 5 Israelis, then it is no big deal to blame the Mossad for an attack that killed 15 Egyptian soldiers and no Israelis at all.

Technorati Tag: Israel and Gaza and Hamas and Muslim Brotherhood.