Today, as Hamas continued to fire rockets on Israeli civilians while ensconced among Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip, Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi ordered Prime Minister Hesham Kandil to travel to Gaza in a show of solidarity with Hamas. Kandil will be accompanied by Egyptian security officials, including Maj. Gen. Mohammed Raafat Shehata, Egypt’s head of intelligence, and the health minister.
The State Department has already stated that the Obama administration is trying to prevent Egypt from getting involved. So far, it isn’t helping. Today, Morsi told a television audience in Egypt:
I called the U.S. President Obama shortly before dawn today, and we discussed ways of achieving calm and ending the bloodshed. I explained to him the role of Egypt in the region and our interest in maintaining our ties with the United States, but I said we reject such aggression.
Muslim Brotherhood leaders are using the current Hamas assault as a rationale for breaking all treaties between Egypt and Israel. Mahmoud Ghozlan, a top leader of the Brotherhood, stated, “We called on Morsi to cut off all diplomatic and commercial ties with Israel and to urge all Arab and Muslim countries to do the same.”