The bloody terror attack that took place Thursday about 20 kilometers north of Eilat brought the old sense of insanity back to the greater Middle East. In Israel, meanwhile, it restored a sense of reality that lately had been buried beneath the surface. It's not the issues of social justice and cost of living, which have filled the agenda all summer, are not important, but for a while our priorities have been skewed. Thursday's events set our priorities straight, at a tragic price. Two weeks ago, television cameras recorded a celebrated theater actor saying, in all seriousness, that the government might initiate a military skirmish in an effort to overshadow the ongoing social protests. He is living in a fairy tale. The social protests are here to stay. It is a mark of Israel's strength that the country has always made security its top priority, but not at the expense of everything else. Israel can deal with a number of issues at the same time. We just need a sense of proportion. Thursday's murderous terror attack made it clear that General Hussein Tantawi and his military council haven't regained control of the Sinai Peninsula. Hosni Mubarak lost his grip on that enchanted desert, and Tantawi, so far, has not fixed the mistake. Even Israel's willingness to aid him by allowing the Egyptian army to enter the region has not helped. That's why Egyptian gas has stopped flowing into Israel. That's why eight funerals will take place Friday. Israel, Egypt and the Palestinian Authority are all paying the heavy price of continued Hamas rule in Gaza. Even if Hamas weren't involved in Thursday's terror attack, the terrorists couldn't have crossed the Sinai border into Israel if Hamas didn't control Gaza. We will not exact retribution from Egypt. First, because this is the first incident of its kind, and second, because there is reason to believe Egypt does not, at present, have control over its Bedouin citizens. Mainly because there is room to hope that some sort of Israeli-Egyptian cooperation will evolve on this specific issue. Previous governments, under the auspices of Ariel Sharon, Benjamin Ben-Eliezer, Shaul Mofaz and Moshe (Bogey) Ya'alon, were miserly when it came to spending military funds on border fences. The barrier in Judea and Samaria is still incomplete, and along the Egyptian border it is nonexistent. A certain opportunity has presented itself. Israel will budget the necessary money and trace a path for the fence. The fence will be most effective if Egypt cooperates with Israel and understands that it is in its interest to do so. Egypt could also help by closing its border with Gaza and stopping the weapons flow through Sinai to Hamas. Egypt aside, on Thursday the IDF retaliated by killing the leaders of the terror organizations responsible for the murders near Eilat. Additional military action may be necessary. Against the backdrop of Thursday's terror attack, although we may be satisfied with the IDF's real time strike, it may be necessary to curb this satisfaction and continue to strike at terrorist organizations.
