That’s right…once again the Middle East is testing the bravery of the United Nations peacekeepers, and once again, they are failing that test.

The United Nations Emergency Force was created in 1956 as part of a resolution agreement to the Suez Canal Crisis – that was when Egypt launched a terrorist “fedayeen” campaign against Israel and committed other acts of aggression with the declared goal of eventually destroying her. Israel responded and in the end, Egypt lost the Sinai Peninsula. The ceasefire agreement, yet another example of Israel doing above and beyond what most countries would do, included Israel withdrawing from the Sinai. They gave the Egyptians back what Egypt had lost in war because they hoped it would serve as a lesson. The lesson didn’t even last a decade. But back in 1956, a hopeful world agreed to established an international force that would be placed on the Egyptian side to prevent further violence.

In May 1967, as part of their intention to launch another war against Israel, the Egyptian government under President Nasser ordered the UN out of the way…and they agreed to leave immediately. Whatever the purpose was for them having been stationed there, the reality was that they ran at the first threat to themselves. In the end, they proved to be more vacationing tourists than peacekeepers.

Likewise, not long after the Yom Kippur War, in which both Syria and Egypt attacked Israel, in 1974, the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force was established as a buffer between Israel and Syria. As in Sinai, their goal was to stand between the nations to preserve the peace.

Given the unease in Syria and rising tensions on the border with Israel after numerous instances in which Syria has fired mortars and bullets across the Israeli border, it seems the UN is worried about its troops. Today’s news indicates that Japan is pulling its troops out of the UN Observer force in the Golan Heights. No, it isn’t the entire force, not yet anyway, and yet it makes me wonder. If they are going to pull out at the first hint of trouble, what are they there for? What good do they do? Honestly, who needs them?

I know they watch over Israeli forces on the Golan. Elie told me how they used to come visit the bases in the Golan Heights. I can’t honestly believe they were as diligent on the Syrian side, but it doesn’t matter. The fact is that there really is no difference whether they are there or not. That is what today’s news reaffirms. Syria is a country that will plow over its own people, use chemical weapons on them, murder their own children in the streets. Is anyone fool enough to believe a bunch of unarmed UN troops would stop them?

In fact, there is ample evidence that more than once UN troops have collaborated with the Arabs (in Lebanon, in Gaza), so truly, Israel is probably better off without them.

So, why this post? Because the hypocrisy, the cowardice, and the incredible nerve of the UN to preach to Israel, sometimes rises up to choke me.

And then, at these moments, I read that it is snowing on Mount Hermon and I look out my office window and watch the rain in Jerusalem. Protection comes from Above – blessings of rain and snow. I wish the Japanese peacekeepers a safe trip home. They are a symptom of the impotence of the United Nations, nothing more.

You can’t keep peace in a nation that wants death and violence. Their leaving simply reminds us of who they are, and who we are. There is no fear in their leaving because there was no protection, ever, in their presence. It was known they would pull out at the first sign of trouble – it is their way, it is their cowardice, it is their shame.

Today, as yesterday and tomorrow – we are protected by the soldiers of the army of Israel. And we know that they and all our sons, are protected by the Guardian of Israel, who sent us the blessings of rain on a day that shines bright, right through the thickest of clouds, in this holy land.

Visit A Soldier’s Mother.

Al Arabiya reports that a large explosion destroyed part of an Egyptian intelligence building.

The building is located in Rafah, near the Gaza border, in Egyptian controlled Sinai.

There’s no additional information available yet.

Egyptian military sources confirmed on Wednesday that missiles were launched from the northern Sinai town of Rafah at the Israeli kibbutz Kerem Shalom, Egypt Independent reported.

Israel and Egypt will be forming a joint military committee at Israel’s request to examine the circumstances surrounding the missile launch, the sources said.

Israel’s Channel 10 reported that four missiles fired from Rafah struck southern Israel in an area near the Gaza Strip‫.

Three of them landed in an open area, while the fourth hit Kerem Shalom in the Eshkol region but did not cause any injuries or damage, Channel 10 reported.

According to an Egyptian source, three Egyptian police officers and one senior police official who were kidnapped by gunmen in the Sinai in February, 2011, during the rebellion against former President Hosni Mubarak, are most likely being held by Palestinian terrorists in the Gaza Strip, Yoni Alpert’s Terror Watch reports.

The four hostages are Mohammed Mustafa Johrei, Sharif Al Adawi, Mohammed Hussein Walid Saad El-Din.

Based on information obtained by sources associated with the Egyptian security system, and which has come to the attention of the kidnapped men’s families, it appears likely that a force comprised of Bedouins and Islamist extremists kidnapped the officers close to the town of El Arish in the northern Sinai, while the officers were securing the Egyptian border with Gaza in Rafah. The same source speculate that the officers were later sold to the of Army of Islam terror organization, headed by Mumtaz Durmush.

The Army of Islam , affiliated with the Salafi movement and the Global Jihad, is based in Gaza but also operates extensively in the Sinai. The purpose of imprisoning the officers for such a long time is to pressure the Egyptian leadership to release radical Islamists from prisons in Egypt, and to remove the restrictions on the free movement of Muhammad al-Zawahiri, leader of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad and the younger brother of Al Qaeda’s top man.

Al-Zawahiri was released from an Egyptian jail in March. Since his release, he has been stating that nothing has changed after the toppling of Mubarak, and that he has no faith in the regime of Mohammed Morsi or in Egyptian democracy. He also advocates waging a religious war against the Jews and Israel.

Egyptian sources suspect that Hamas officials have known about the kidnapping and even took part in it. Among the suspects is senior Hamas commander Ayman Nofal, who served as commander of the Hamas military wing in central Gaza when he was caught by Egyptian security forces in 2008 after infiltrating into Egyptian territory and attempting to launch terrorist attacks there. Nofal escaped from Egyptian prison and fled back to Gaza Strip during last year’s upheaval in Egypt.

The Families of the kidnapped officers blame the Egyptian leadership for neglecting to investigate and seek the release of their loved ones using the new regime’s close ties with Hamas. They also condemn President Morsi, himself a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, off refusing to meet with them and shirking his responsibility for the safety of Egyptian officers.

Attacks from Gaza on Israel have ramped up significantly in the last several days.  An Israeli patrol was hit by what was thought to be a roadside bomb on Tuesday (three were wounded), near the border fence with Gaza.  On Saturday, terrorists in Gaza fired an anti-tank missile at an Israeli jeep with four infantrymen in it, as the patrol operated in the area of the roadside bomb attack.  The four soldiers were wounded, one severely.  More than 80 rockets have been launched from Gaza into Israel since the attack on the jeep on Saturday, 10 November.  At least three Israeli civilians were injured in the rocket attacks.

Geography is beginning to rear its head again, as Israel has also sustained incursions into the Golan from Syria in recent days.  On Sunday, Israel fired “warning shots” into Syria after the latest incursion, which involved mortar rounds from Syria landing in the Golan.

Egypt is seeking to broker another soon-to-be-violated ceasefire between Gaza and Israel, but on Israel’s Egyptian flank, the stakes are being raised by “non-state actors.”  On Sunday, unidentified “gunmen” opened fire on an Egyptian security forces camp near the border with Israel in the northeastern Sinai.  Security in the Sinai has been a major – and legitimate – concern for Egypt since before the Arab Spring began; Iranian-sponsored subversives were identified as operating there while Mubarak was still in power, and as recently as August 2012, terrorists in the Sinai attempted to use stolen Egyptian military equipment to ram structures at the Kerem Shalom crossing into Israel.

Israel has responded to the attacks from Gaza with air attacks on the terrorists’ infrastructure, as well as an immediate counter-attack against the position of the anti-tank missile launcher on Saturday.  Defense Minister Ehud Barak says Israel won’t hesitate to launch a Gaza operation, presumably similar to Cast Lead in early 2009.

A month ago, The Israel Project published an excellent analysis pointing out that the posture of Hamas in Gaza was very much like its aggressive posture in 2008, from militarizing civilian facilities like mosques to unifying Gaza-based terror groups under its political leadership.  In terms of the latter, an armed faction of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine claimed responsibility for the missile attack on the jeep on Saturday, along with Hamas’s Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades.  It is quite possible that both groups are acting under Hamas’s operational leadership at the moment.

Changing conditions for peace

The Arab Spring has changed the factors in this dynamic since the timeframe of Operation Cast Lead, however.  In January of 2009, Israel didn’t face the prospect of a significant remilitarization of the Sinai Peninsula.  Today, she does.  No one nation or event has created the situation that now exists, but it could be something of a Catch-22 for decision-makers in Jerusalem.  Crack down on Gaza hard enough, and the resulting spillover into the Sinai will give Mohammed Morsi legitimate reasons to increase his military presence there.  Yet Israel doesn’t have the option of simply allowing Hamas to ramp up its attacks on civilians across the south – or on Israeli infantry patrols, for that matter.

Could Israel get an explicit, enforceable agreement from Morsi to coordinate each and every military deployment into the Sinai, so that Israel would effectively have a veto over deployments she considered too dangerous?  It doesn’t matter that those are essentially the terms of the treaty.  Morsi is a new ball-game.  Nothing is clear right now, partly because we don’t know how fast Morsi wants to move on his ideological designs on Jerusalem – and partly because it isn’t clear what the United States will do.

The US was the essential third leg of the 1979 Israel-Egypt peace accord, and our affirmation of interest in it is the only thing that will keep it in force, at least for a time, if Egypt decides it’s better to start maneuvering around the treaty than to honor it straightforwardly.  During Egypt’s turmoil in the first half of 2011, President Obama did not reaffirm that the 1979 accord was a core national security interest of the United States – a measure that would have been simple, basic statesmanship.  His administration has been virtually silent on the subject.

The point here is not to assert that Obama doesn’t care about the treaty and will stand by passively as it is contravened.  The point is that we don’t knowwhat he’ll do.  My own assessment is that what he does will depend on how Morsi handles an effective treaty breach.  If Morsi’s words meet the criteria by which Team Obama’s ideologues judge foreign actors, the US Congress may be the last stand in the United States for the principle of the 1979 accord – which could be breached by inches, with small, day-to-day tactical choices, without anyone ever announcing that that’s the intention.

The Cairo Administrative Court on Tuesday dismissed a lawsuit filed against Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi, calling for the annulment of the 1978 Camp David peace accords between Egypt and Israel.

The petitioners argued that limitations on the amount of Egyptian forces which can be present in the Sinai set by the treaty are a threat to Egyptian national sovereignty because of increasing numbers of terror groups in the area.

The court rejected the case as outside its jurisdiction, leaving issues of national sovereignty to the president and his executive branch.

Since the overthrow of former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak and the election of Morsi, calls have increased within Egypt to cancel the peace treaty with Israel.  One of the most vocal of these advocates is Morsi’s advisor, political analyst Mohammed Esmet Seif Dawla.

Dawla argued that not only is the threat to Egypt from the terror groups great, but that Israel may one day attempt to retake Sinai itself.

A striking photo essay [here] from EgyptSource focuses on the stark realities of Sinai and the multiple challenges it poses to the Egyptians. EgyptSource, a project of the Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East, 

follows Egypt’s transition and provides a platform for Egyptian perspectives on the major issues – economic, political, legal, religious and human rights – that are at stake in the post-Mubarak era…

Needless to say, given its physical proximity to Israel, Sinai is not only an Egyptian challenge. That it gets such a small degree of media attention is a puzzle.

The essay that accompanies the images, by Mosaab Elshamy and published yesterday, starts this way:

Army checkpoints on the road to Sinai are almost an indication of a region at war. The vast peninsula bordering Egypt with Gaza and Israel rose to the forefront of the new Egyptian government’s troubles after an army checkpoint was attacked by unknown militants last Ramadan, killing 16 soldiers. This was not the first attack of its kind in Sinai – the region has been a hotbed of militants long before the revolution, but even more so after the fall of Mubarak. This was, however, the deadliest attack seen in Sinai, and the first under President Morsi’s rule. Backed by public anger, the military launched Operation Eagle to hunt down those behind the attack. Different claims have been made regarding the outcome, but what is evident from my visit to the region is that little has changed.

All that Sinai has become notorious for – smuggling of weapons, torturing Africans and rise of militancy – remains unchanged. The army had also declared its intention to close down the tunnels connecting Sinai to the besieged Gaza strip, but in Rafah economic activity is booming with trucks full of goods coming in and out of the town almost every hour of the day.

The same lack of security along with rise of Islamist extremists led to yet another sectarian attack on the Coptic minority in Rafah, causing many to flee for their lives, almost 2 years after their church was burnt by armed militants. [More]

Sunday produced two disturbing illustrations of today’s Sinai realities – again, almost no media coverage.

Gunmen attack buildings in Sinai’s Dahab Maan News | Published yesterday (updated) 29/10/2012 21:34

EL-ARISH, Egypt (Ma’an) — Gunmen attacked government buildings on Sunday in the Egyptian city of Dahab in the Sinai peninsula, security officials said. Bedouin gunmen attacked a checkpoint at the entrance to the popular Sinai tourist destination and also attacked local government headquarters and a hospital, Egyptian security officials told Ma’an. Disorder has spread in Sinai since former President Hosni Mubarak was ousted in a popular uprising last year, with Islamist militants stepping up attacks on security forces and the Israeli border. Egypt’s president, Muhammad Mursi, has vowed to restore order.

6 hurt in shooting on children’s park in south Sinai Maan News | Published Sunday 28/10/2012 (updated) 28/10/2012 23:09

SHARM AL-SHEIKH, Egypt (Ma’an) — Gunmen opened fire in a children’s park in south Sinai on Saturday night, wounding six, officials said. The al-Fayrouz park in al-Tur city was packed with families celebrating the Eid al-Adha holiday when a group of Bedouin men opened fire, witnesses said. Four children, a man and woman suffered injuries, some serious, medics said. One child lost the fingers on her left hand, they said.

Then there’s this additional aspect of the Sinai challenge; the op ed below from Al Arabiya provides a small window into the conflicted states of mind that characterize the Egyptian – and other Arab sub-groups’ – views of the Palestinian Arabs and the multidimensional challenges they have posed for three generations.

A Palestinian state in Sinai? By AHMAD NAGUIB ROUSHDY Al Arabiya

Rumour has it, and some articles in Egyptian newspapers have stated that the increasing crossings of Palestinians to the Egyptian Sinai through the illegal tunnels between Egypt and Gaza have been taking place in accordance with a plan by the Islamist-led government of Hamas in Gaza, which has ties with the Muslim Brotherhood-led government of President Mohamed Mursiin Egypt. The aim is to settle the Palestinians in Sinai, not as refugees but as a permanent homeland for them and to declare a Palestinian state there, substituting it for the West Bank… Every Egyptian sympathizes with the Palestinian cause, and much Egyptian blood has been shed in defense of it. But if these rumors are true, the Palestinians have shown themselves to be ungrateful and could be considered to be Egypt’s enemies. The Egyptian government should force any Palestinians now in Sinai to return to where they came from, since they cannot be considered refugees. The Mursi government’s ties with Hamas should not compromise Egypt’s security and sovereignty. When President Mursi in his speech at the United Nations General Assembly in September called for the right of the Palestinians to establish an independent state, he meant in Palestine and not in Egypt. Any Egyptian who helps the Palestinians or others to plunder our land must be considered a traitor. [More here]

Good to keep in mind when simple solutions are next offered up for the complex challenges in this part of the world.

Gunmen opened fire in a children’s park in south Sinai on Saturday night, wounding six, officials told the Ma’an news agency.

The al-Fayrouz park in al-Tur city was packed with families celebrating the Muslim Eid al-Adha holiday, when a group of Bedouin men opened fire, witnesses said.

Four children, a man and a woman suffered injuries, some serious, medics said. One child lost the fingers on her left hand, they said.

Locals said a Bedouin man had been thrown out of the park for harassing a female child, and returned with family members for the shooting.

The assailants fled the scene.

In northern Sinai, two girls escaped an attempted kidnapping when an officer with the traffic police intervened, a Ma’an correspondent reported.

Nada, 13, and Sabha, 14, were walking down the main street of el-Arish city when three men tried to abduct them.

Officer Ahmad al-Saeedi opened fire on the assailants, and one suffered a bullet wound to the leg. Al-Saeedi was also wounded and transferred to al-Arish hospital.