And Pharoah said, "Let my people come!"

For three months I watched as the Lebanese Army shelled a civilian Palestinian refugee camp - with nary a word raised in protest by the international community concerning the potential for harm in such an action. If anything, I read word after word of praise in the international press from all corners of the world community for the "good job" the Lebanese Army was doing. Go figure.

Yesterday, Hamas organized and stage-managed a protest of women and children at the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip border. Over 90 Palestinians were injured by Egyptian border guards. If you were not reading an Israeli or Egyptian daily - the odds are high you would simply not know a thing about it. Here is an excerpt from the Jerusalem Post's account:

At least 90 Gazans, most of them women, were wounded by Egyptian border guards using tear gas, clubs, water cannons and live ammunition to disperse the demonstrators, who were protesting against the continued closure of the border crossing. One Egyptian policeman was wounded in the clashes, the worst since Hamas took full control of the Gaza Strip in June. "The Egyptian government has delivered a strong warning to Hamas following the incident," an Egyptian diplomat told The Jerusalem Post. "We hold the Hamas government in the Gaza Strip responsible for the riots that occurred along our border today."

The clashes erupted after the demonstrators stormed through the border terminal, chanting slogans against President Hosni Mubarak and other Arab leaders. Huda Naim, a Hamas legislator who participated in the protest, accused the Egyptian border guards of unleashing dogs against the demonstrators. She said that some of the women who managed to cross into Egypt were refusing to return home until Egypt reopened the terminal. "The Egyptians are participating in the blockade imposed on the Gaza Strip," Naim said. "We appeal to President Hosni Mubarak to open the border so that patients can go to hospitals in Egypt and other Arab countries." Hamas officials expressed deep disappointment over Egypt's refusal to help the people living in the Gaza Strip.

Now, if the Egyptian border guards wore the uniform of the IDF, you can bet your fanny that the UN Security Council would be debating a motion to censure the Israeli government's conduct as well as an attempt to force the Israelis to wear sack cloth and ashes for at least a generation. But guess what? As of this morning's scan of the newspapers - there is not one measly word panned in outrage at the conduct of the Egyptian border police from any western sources - let alone for it to be up for discussion at the UN Security Council's morning agenda. In fact, on the UN Security Council's agenda was a meeting today to discuss a motion to censure's Israeli's embargo of the Gaza Strip under the guise of "collective punishment."

And if you believe a trade embargo/boycott equals 'collective punishment' of a people, than I suggest the next time anyone requests you sign on or lend your support to a trade boycott/ embargo of Israel; you remember the Israeli people and refuse on the principle that you do sanction the collective punishment of a people for the actions of their government.

The major Canadian newspapers all carried stories from the Middle East but the buzz concerns the unidentified masked Palestinian gunmen who just happened to blow up the border wall between the Gaza Strip and Egypt under the ever vigilant eyes of Hamas - imagine that. Just as a general observation – imagine being the guy running the business of importing black balaclavas for the Gaza Strip. This account is from the Globe and Mail:

Masked gunmen destroyed about two-thirds of the 11-kilometre-long metal wall separating the Gaza Strip from Egypt in the town of Rafah and tens of thousands of Palestinians poured across the border to buy supplies made scarce by an Israeli blockade of the impoverished territory.

The gunmen began breaching the wall dividing Rafah before dawn, according to witnesses and Hamas officials, who told The Associated Press that they later closed all but two of the gaps in the wall. The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter, said they were allowing Palestinians to move freely through the two gaps.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said on Wednesday he had given his security forces orders to let Palestinians in from Gaza to buy food and then go home. "I told them: 'Let them come in to eat and buy food', then they go back, as long as they are not carrying weapons," Mr. Mubarak told reporters at a Cairo book fair.

Palestinians cross the Rafah border into Egypt on Wednesday over a barrier destroyed by masked Palestinian militants overnight. Tens of thousands of Palestinians flood into Egypt to buy supplies made scarce by an Israeli blockade. Mr. Mubarak's remarks were the first indication from the Egyptian authorities on how they intend to handle the sudden influx of thousands of Palestinians from Gaza, which has been under Israeli blockade for most of the time since June.

Ha'aretz puts the number of Palestinians who have crossed into Egypt at 200,000. In a few days (at this rate) there could potentially be nobody left in the Gaza Strip - if this BBC report is anyway accurate of the Egyptian position.