Tom Lantos: “The nightmare that is unfolding in Gaza is in no small measure the responsibility of the Government of Egypt. Egypt has…”

“The nightmare that is unfolding in Gaza is in no small measure the responsibility of the Government of Egypt. Egypt has a huge military, and it boggles the mind to assume that the Egyptian military would not have been able to seal Gaza from the constant flow of drugs, weapons and persons being trafficked into Gaza had they attempted to do so. Now, we all understand that the prime culprit in Gaza is Hamas, the terrorist organization. A secondary culprit is the previous corrupt regime of Yasser Arafat, which led to the parliamentary victory of Hamas. But the Egyptian Government has a heavy responsibility for what is the present situation in Gaza. It is a terrorist-controlled area, weapons flowing in, drugs flowing in, trafficked persons flowing in. And to have the minimum of a certification by our Secretary of State that at the very least Egypt at long last has decided to control this very dangerous border is an extremely modest measure. I would have preferred far more severe measures in this regard, but I strongly support this measure.”