Israeli Public Security Minister Avi Dichter said that Egypt's failure to prevent arms smuggling into Gaza Strip implies that Cairo wants Hamas to prosper, Israel's Army Radio reported Monday.
In an interview, Dichter said that "any right thinking person who witnesses the Egyptians' failure to act against arms smuggling can all but infer that strengthening Hamas is their interest." "Egypt is capable of acting decisively against Hamas, but hasn't done that for more than seven years," Dichter stressed. "Their intelligence is as good as ours," he concluded.
According to Haaretz, the deputy head of the Shin Bet security service told the Israeli cabinet at its weekly meeting on Sunday that 40 tons of explosives have been smuggled into the Strip since Hamas took over the coastal area in mid-June.
"I am not convinced that we, here in Israel, are able to fully understand the Egyptians" motives, as they see things," Dichter said. "We are analyzing their motives through Israeli eyes, and I fear that we are a little wrong. I think Egypt wants Hamas to be strong. Maybe not too strong, but the Egyptians don't have a full grip on the spigot."
