Links for January 12th

Links from my del.icio.us account for January 12th:

Daily News Egypt - MP HOSPITALIZED AFTER HEATED DEBATE OVER GAS EXPORTS TO ISRAEL - MPs throw shoes at each other as Egypt ignores second court order to stop gas exports to Israel.

Barack Obama administration 'prepared to talk to Hamas' | World news | guardian.co.uk - I am skeptical about this.

The National Interest | Gaza, Viewed From Cairo - Michele Dunne on Mubarak's calculations.

Avi Shlaim: How Israel brought Gaza to the brink of humanitarian catastrophe | World news | The Guardian - Abi Schlaim: "On 2 June 1948, Sir John Troutbeck wrote to the foreign secretary, Ernest Bevin, that the Americans were responsible for the creation of a gangster state headed by "an utterly unscrupulous set of leaders". I used to think that this judgment was too harsh but Israel's vicious assault on the people of Gaza, and the Bush administration's complicity in this assault, have reopened the question."

Le Figaro - International : Dans le secret des tunnels de Gaza - Georges Malbrunot on the tunnels

In Fake Arab Town, Israeli Lawyers and Actors Prep For Real War - Yahoo! News - Where Israelis practice urban warfare in case of a mass invasion of Gaza.

Egypt police, children wounded in Israeli air strikes - Yahoo! News - I wonder what will be the reaction to this...

ei: Will Hizballah intervene in the Gaza conflict? - Hizbullah's behavior during the attack on Egypt, its motivations and likelihood of an intervention to support Hamas, and analysis of its unprecedented attack on Egypt. (Although al-Manar and some Hizbullah figures have toned down the anti-Egypt stance since Nasrallah's speech).

Rafah: A border town caught between Egypt and Hamas | csmonitor.com - Lina Attalah writes about Rafah, Egyptian concerns about Gaza, and ends with this great quote from a Palestinian: "The tunnels are a normal response to the [border] closure. If the borders were consistently open, there would be no tunnels. We are not rats."

The Arabist