Bomb Rocks Tel Aviv, Clinton Arrives in Egypt

Photo Credit: Washington Post

A bomb exploded in Tel Aviv on Wednesday near Israel’s military headquarters, wounding 10 people. Police believe the device was left on a bus that was driving past the military headquarters, but denied reports of a suicide attack. Although no organization has officially claimed responsibility for the attack, the armed wing of Hamas in the Gaza Strip declared, “We told you IDF (Israeli Defense Force) that our blessed hands will reach your leaders and soldiers wherever they are.” The Obama administration was quick to condemn the attack as “outrageous,” while Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, en route to Egypt from Israel, said, “the United States stands ready to provide any assistance that Israel requires.”

Meanwhile, Clinton met with Egyptian president Mohammed Morsi to discuss a possible cease-fire in Gaza. Although Clinton will not hold direct talks with Hamas, she plans to meet with leaders of the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank. However, in an op-ed for CNN, Ed Husain berated both Israel and the United States for ignoring Hamas. “For its own security, to strengthen the interests of the United States in the region and to show recognition of the changes that are sweeping the entire Middle East, Israel needs to change. It must talk directly with Hamas,” Husain stated.

This is flawed thinking, says Shalom Cohen in the Washington Jewish Weekly. “Hamas would not have stepped up its campaign of terrorism against southern Israel were it not for the change of leadership in neighboring Egypt. Hamas and its new Egyptian supporters have to learn once and for all that firing rockets on Israel’s civilian population is now, and has always been, unacceptable,” Cohen said. Roger Friedland, in the Huffington Post, had a bleak outlook on the situation. “If geo-political forces around the world cannot create an environment where the parties must make a territorial partition, to guarantee Palestinian statehood and Israeli security, then we can expect decades of death, hatred, and increased probability of regional war,” Friedland wrote.