WASHINGTON -- The Obama administration struggled Thursday to deal with the biggest flare-up in Israeli-Palestinian violence in years, unable to call on its old ally, former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, to negotiate an end to rocket attacks on the Jewish state.
Instead, the administration relied on Egypt's untested Islamist President Mohammed Morsi who - like the Gaza Strip's rulers, Hamas - is a member of the Muslim Brotherhood.
The challenge illustrates America's weakened influence since last year's Arab Spring as popular Islamist political movements have replaced pro-U.S., secular strongmen throughout the region over the last two years. The shift has shaken the foundations of American security strategy in the Middle East and is having its greatest effect in Egypt, the Arab world's most populous and influential country. There, the United States long partnered with Mubarak and his circle of top generals in mediation efforts between Israel and the Palestinians but now faces far trickier diplomacy with Morsi.
President Barack Obama spoke with Morsi Wednesday, but they came out of the discussion with diverging messages. A White House statement credited Egypt's "central role in preserving regional security" while stressing that Obama condemned Hamas' rocket fire from Gaza into Israel and backed the Jewish state's right to self-defense. Obama also spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, urging him to avoid civilian casualties while placing responsibility clearly on Hamas to stop its attacks.
But Morsi, speaking Thursday in Cairo, provided a far different account of his conversation with Obama. He said he told Obama that Israel's offensive must stop and should not be repeated and that the leaders "agreed that Egypt and the United States will work together to prevent any escalation or the continuation of the aggression," according to a presidential statement. By "aggression," Morsi meant Israel's military action. Later he even more explicitly denounced Israel's "unacceptable aggression" and sent his prime minister to Gaza in a show of support for Hamas' rulers.
Morsi, who entered office in June, belongs to the Muslim Brotherhood party. Hamas is the Brotherhood's Palestinian chapter and has long been branded a terrorist organization by the United States, meaning American officials have no contacts with the group's members and must work through intermediaries like Egypt, Turkey and European countries to send it messages.
"There is a very clear path here to ending the violence and that's for the rocket attacks to stop, so we would hope that that's a message that would be delivered," State Department spokesman Mark Toner said, referring to the planned visit to Gaza on Friday by Egyptian Prime Minister Hesham Kandil.
Responding to a barrage of missiles from the Gaza Strip, Israel's offensive began Wednesday with sorties that killed Hamas' military commander and destroyed dozens of rocket launchers. But Palestinian militants launched nearly 150 more rockets at Israel on Thursday, killing three people and firing into the Tel Aviv area for the first time since Saddam Hussein's Scud missiles struck Israel's largest city in the 1991 Gulf War.
Late in the day, Israel signaled a ground operation may be imminent as forces moved toward the border area with Gaza, raising the likelihood of a wider conflict following two days in which 15 Palestinians were killed.
Associated Press writer Matthew Lee contributed to this report.
Source: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/11/15/3098959/fresh-mideast-violence-challenges.html
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