Egypt not blocking arms smuggling into Gaza....

Well, surprise, surprise....

Egypt's failure to stop the arms smuggling into the Gaza Strip from Sinai "almost ensures an eventual resumption of hostilities in Gaza," the former deputy chief of the Shin Bet security service warned recently.

The former Shin Bet deputy head, who is currently a visiting fellow at a research institute in the United States, published a paper on the subject in which he charged that "Egypt is averse to recognizing the severity of the issue." While Egypt does periodically expose smuggling tunnels and seize arms shipments, he said, it does not destroy the tunnels to put them out of commission. Instead, it either blocks the tunnel's entrance or posts a guard there, enabling Hamas to dig a new exit with relatively little work.

"There is no evidence that Egyptian forces are taking steps to arrest and punish smugglers," he continued, and without such steps, "there is little deterrence."