In the annals of the Egyptian Revolution, Sunday, August 5, 2012, shall remain a day of infamy. Jihadists, said to be Palestinians, attacked an Egyptian army garrison based in Rafah at the border between Egypt and Gaza. It was a sneak attack with assault weapons, at the time when those Egyptian military sat at sunset for the break of their fast during this month of Ramadan.
The devastating ambush resulted in the death of 16 army personnel, including officers and the wounding of 7 others. The ostensible purpose of the treacherous attack inside Sinai, Egypt, was to strike at Israeli positions through Gaza. The Jihadist endeavor was foiled, but it unleashed a host of consequences which shall surely redefine a series of relationships. It could be said that, in a domino-like style, the affected network of relationships includes those between: The Morsi regime and the Hamas authorities in Gaza; the Egyptian-Israeli collaboration under the terms of the Egypt-Israel Peace Treaty of March 1979; the delicate balance of power between the civilian Morsi regime and the Supreme Council of Armed Forces (SCAF); and the outlook of the Egyptian masses upon the rule by their Islamist-oriented government.
The most immediate result of the Sinai massacre is the remilitarization of Sinai and the development of its infrastructure. Sinai is Asian Egypt and its security and Egyptian sovereignty over it trigger huge reaction by the Egyptian masses towards any perceived weakening thereof.
As typical of the Egyptian Revolution so far, the pendulum can swing abruptly from one extreme to the other. Until the Sinai massacre took place, the most important concerns for the new Egypt were the economy and security on the Egyptian street. But after August 5, security from external threats trumped concern for Egypt's present economic woes.
In that context, easing passage by the Gazans into Egypt was seen as a threat. President Morsi and the Qandeel cabinet were lambasted in the Egyptian street for being soft on the Gaza Palestinians. The shared Islamist orientation between Cairo and Gaza was blamed for the Sinai massacre. The masses yelled for closing the official entrance checkpoints between Sinai and Gaza. The armed forces were called upon to destroy all tunnels dug up clandestinely by the Palestinians to overcome the hardships imposed upon the Gaza inhabitants by the Israeli blockade. But the tunnels became new underground highways for smuggling weapons, jihadists, commercial items including cars from Egypt into Gaza.
Thus Egypt, following the Sinai massacre, began to look hard at its security from brother Arab terrorists and from any military intervention from the outside into the suddenly-constructed program to overcome lawlessness in Sinai. The calls for a cooperative review by both Egypt and Israel of the security protocols annexed to the 1979 Peace Treaty became vociferous. They made the strengthening of the might of the Egyptian army, security and police units, in order to effectively decimate the pockets of anarchy and terrorism, a primordial necessity. New areas of cooperation on the Israel/Gaza/Sinai borders may have been grudgingly opened up by the very events that caused all of Egypt to mourn its martyrs.
As the funerals for the massacred 16 Egyptian army personnel proceeded all over Egypt, most of the mourners showed hostility toward the new rulers of Egypt, excepting the military. Prime Minister Qandeel was booed as he finished praying for the dead; President Morsi cancelled his appearance at the main military/civilian funeral; flags were lowered at half mast all over Egypt for the 3-day period of official mourning; each Governerate which lost someone in the Sinai massacre had provincial funerals and counted their martyrs as victims of the treachery of Palestinian jihadists.
While the Gaza administration declared that "the liberation of Palestine cannot come at the expense of Egypt's security," the Egyptian airforce scrambled its fighter jets and gunship helicopters which took to the air to bomb and strike suspected pockets of terrorism and anarchy in Sinai. As they seethed with rage, the Egyptians applauded the show of force. The flow of Libyan arms to the Palestinians in the east became a focus of attention by the huge Egyptian military establishment.
Suspicion of the ultimate objectives of the Palestinian jihadists was fueled by all kinds of rumors: some said: Those elements were keen on destabilizing the new Egypt which they wanted to be dragged into an unwanted war with Israel. Others devined that the goal was to declare Sinai an Islamic Emirate.
The first page of Al-Ahram newspaper, the oldest Egyptian daily (first issue is dated August 5, 1876) of August 10, 2012, headlines: "Destruction of 150 tunnels. Liquidation of 60 Terrorists." The government bedouim informants estimate that there are 1200 tunnels. Welcome to the dark world of the Sinai underground, where the owner of each tunnel is called "the King," and the tunnel supervisor is called "the Prince." This is an Egypt which is largely unknown even to its people. Now the battle against "the underground" has begun, and the nation has risen up insisting on avenging the victims of the Sinai massacre.
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