Attacks on Israel from Egypt could lead to all-out war.

News that rockets were fired at southern Israel from the Sinai — from Egypt in other words — raised the possibility that an IDF operation directed against Gaza might lead to further incidents with Cairo.

Egyptian newspaper Al-Shorouk reported Friday that an Egyptian militant group in Sinai Peninsula has claimed responsibility for the launching of the rockets.

“The rockets were launched from the northern part of Sinai,” the newspaper said.

It added that the group also released a video clip showing “that the rockets were fired from 107-millimeter rocket launchers.”

Although the attacks will be attributed to rebel elements acting independently of Cairo, the unanswered question posed by simultaneous attacks on American diplomatic missions in Tunisia, Libya and Egypt on September 11, 2012 are to what extent Jihadi groups are intermingled with ‘government’ agencies in those countries.

 

Richard Fernandez

For once a crisis is brewing which no amount of bribery — offers of arms to Israel or food and money to Egypt — can long forestall. The true bill for the lies at Benghazi and the entire ‘Arab Spring’ enterprise may no longer be avoided. At long last some answers must be provided. How deep is the administration’s partnership with the Muslim Brotherhood? Just what did the assault on US consulates throughout the region truly portend? Is there substantial opposition to the policy of dealing with the Muslim Brotherhood from within American intelligence agencies or the military?

And if so, why has it not been discussed till now? Why are the papers bannering Paula Broadwell or any number of the tabloid talking points the media trots out to protect Obama? Those tactics have allowed the administration to avoid building a broad, bipartisan and national consensus for whatever it is doing in the Middle East by laying down a wall of smoke. Operating behind a compliant screen of media apologists and vilifying any critics in its path, the administration has pursued an unaccountable course in the region, saying one thing to the public and doing God knows what in private.

 

All the lies, the smokescreens, the sex scandals and the boot-kissing media can come unravelled  if there is a real Arab-Ireal war in the Middle East.  But Israel faces a problem. Demographic and political attitudes have changed in the US (witness the last election) and they have changed even more in Europe. Today it is Israel who is viewed by the “Obama Constituency,” - the Left, the press, academia, European elite opinion - as the aggressor. I believe that the current Israeli leadership understands this and realizes that time is not on their side. That increases the possibility that Israel will strike, and strike soon. Obama may have precipitated the coming war.