PLAYING RIGHT INTO THEIR HANDS:

Gazans breach Egyptian fence again: Hamas gunmen escort a front-end loader clearing the way for a surging crowd, forcing hundreds of newly deployed guards to retreat (Richard Boudreaux and Jeffrey Fleishman, 1/26/08, Los Angeles Times)

A surging Palestinian crowd that had been pushed away from Egyptian soil cheered as a yellow front-end loader, escorted by black-clad Hamas gunmen, punched through three sections of a concrete barrier topped by chain-link fencing. [...]

It was a day of seesawing fortunes for Palestinians desperate to keep the border open to prolong a three-day shopping spree for goods made scarce by an Israeli blockade.

It ended with Hamas, the militant Islamic group that governs Gaza and advocates Israel's destruction, holding a stronger hand in its bid to gain a voice in how the border is regulated and end the territory's isolation.

It's incredible the way Israel's weak leadership--since Ariel Sharon's stroke--has ceded so much momentum to Hamas and Hezbollah with nothing to show for it.

Posted by Orrin Judd at January 26, 2008 7:49 AM