Egypt and Israel spar over Gaza as Sinai crisis escalates

CAIRO — Former Palestinian strongman Mohammed Dahlan was in Cairo recently where, according to a well-informed Palestinian source, he met with Egypt's military leader Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. Dahlan's effort to return to the Palestinian political and security equation — as one, albeit the smallest, of three centers of Palestinian political gravity dominated by Hamas and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) — is a measure of both the disarray in Palestinian ranks and, more broadly, the sparring over Gaza being played out between Israel and Egypt.

Since Hamas' bloody ouster of PLO military forces, led by the self-same Dahlan, from Gaza in June 2007, Fatah's leaders, and not they alone, have dreamed of reversing the clock and ruling Gaza once again. Dreaming, however, is all that Hamas' opponents have been able to muster.