In our coverage of yesterday’s bloody attacks in which eight Israelis were murdered by Palestinian terrorists near Eilat, Contentions authors have attempted to go below the surface and understand what those who planned or colluded in the atrocity hoped to accomplish.

I pointed out it was possibly a provocation aimed at reminding the region Hamas has the power to unleash violence anytime it wants from its secure terror state on Israel’s doorstep, especially with the confrontation over statehood about to take place in the United Nations. David Hazony saw it as an effort on the part of Hamas to help distract the world from the atrocities its ally Syria is conducting against their own people as well as Palestinians. And Evelyn Gordon believes Egypt is turning a blind eye to its territory being used as a base for terror attacks in order to convince Israel to allow it to re-militarize the Sinai.

All of this may be true, but today, another angle to this story must be considered.

A shooting incident between Israeli forces pursuing the fleeing terrorists and Egyptian security personnel at the border makes one wonder if Hamas and its Islamist allies in Cairo are also seeking to heighten the already tense relations between Israel and Egypt. According to reports, three Egyptians were killed by Israeli fire when terrorists escaping across the border fled into what is described as a group of Egyptian security officers. Whatever it is that actually happened — and Israel has only said the army is investigating the incident — Egyptians are enraged with various political parties demanding the Israeli ambassador be expelled and the government issuing an official protest.

The angry Egyptians are notably silent about the fact they have allowed their territory to be used as a launching pad for terror against a neighboring state, but given the unpopularity of Israel and Jews in Egyptian society, this is hardly a surprise. Given the commitment of the post-Mubarak government to warming relations with both Iran and Hamas, Israel can expect no satisfaction from any complaints about the fact the Sinai has become a crossroads for terror.

Whether or not those behind the terror attack deliberately sought to get Egyptians killed by Israelis, more tension between Jerusalem and Cairo must be considered a bonus for them. It is also suspicious the terrorists fled into a group of security officers who just happened to be in that one spot in the vast expanse of the desert border between the two countries, if indeed that is what happened.

The Egyptian military knows that it has too much to lose in terms of the $2 billion in U.S aid it still gets annually to allow itself to be drawn into a conflict with Israel. But Hamas and its Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood allies have every motive to drive a wedge between the post-Mubarak government and Israel as well as the West.

But no matter what the terrorists were thinking, we do know this much. A day after the slaughter of eight Israelis, the Hamas rulers of Gaza are once again flexing their muscles firing missiles into Israel. They have demonstrated they can hurt the Jewish state whenever they want to. They also have seen relations between Israel and Egypt deteriorate even further. That adds up to a very good week for Hamas and heightened concerns about both security and the regional balance of power for Israel and the United States.

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