AboutDon Radlauer Expertise I`m originally from the United States, and now make my home in Israel - after living for some years in Hong Kong and England.
In addition to handling general questions about Israeli life and history, I can field questions relating to strategic aspects of terrorism and counter-terrorism, as well as some tactical aspects. As an Associate of the International Policy Institute for Counter-Terrorism (ICT), I can draw on ICT`s accumulated expertise in this area. As the Lead Researcher for ICT`s "al-Aqsa Intifada" Database Project (and author of "An Engineered Tragedy", ICT`s report on the findings of this project), I have become the world`s leading expert (indeed, as far as I know, the world`s only expert) on the demographics of the victims of the phase of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that began in September 2000.
Going beyond terrorism per se, I can answer questions regarding pretty much all aspects of the Israeli-Arab conflict.
Experience
Experience in the area I've lived in Israel for over eight years. For more than five years, I have been associated with the Institute for Counter-Terrorism at the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya, Israel. My own role there is, to a degree, that of "expert in everything else" - that is, I'm less of a security expert than many of the other researchers there, but I have a broader background in other areas, including banking and finance, general scientific subjects, and so on. I also can draw upon the knowledge of other ICT staff.
Publications ICT website, http://www.ict.org.il
My blog, "On the Contrary: Don's Mideast Musings" is at http://radlauer.blogspot.com .
Question i'm just curious as to why egypt helps israel in this fight against the palestinians. I'm so far thinking israel is correct for their actions due to rockets with more accurate and range, but so far if I'm reading correctly Egypt and Israel are executing plans for blockades. I'm guessing that Egypt feels Israel is correct as well?
"Israel and Egypt blockaded Gaza after Hamas violently seized control of the territory in June 2007, and have cracked open their borders only to let in limited amounts of humanitarian aid." that's a quote from the article.
Answer Dear Juan -
As I understand it, Egypt's motivation in maintaining its (rather leaky) version of the blockade of the Gaza Strip has very little to do with any great Egyptian love for Israel or sense of justice, and much more to do with the Egyptian regime's desire to maintain its own stability.
Hamas is a Palestinian offshoot of the Egyptian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood, which in turn is the most significant threat to the stability of Egypt's more-or-less secularist dictatorship. Hamas is also nowadays backed by Iran, making it part of the Iran-Syria-Hezbollah-Hamas extremist alliance which opposes (and is perceived as a major threat by) the more moderate "status quo" Sunni Arab countries like Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Jordan. Accordingly, Egypt's government is far from comfortable with "Hamastan" as a next-door neighbor, especially with an open border between them.
Egypt's leaders do appear to believe that Hamas was at fault for ending the cease-fire with Israel; but I think their actions are much more driven by their perceptions of their own self-interest than by any particular ideology or sense of principle.
