[Raj_Copi_Jin]

So you see it as more of an attack on the increasingly enfeebled Mubarek then? Hurt the tourist industry, force him to rely on or work with Israel and the 2 billion dollars a year from the US and wait for magic hour when the Egyptians rise up? I suspect then that al Qaeda has been deluded into believing that arab states are as tentative dealing with real on the ground terrorist threats as we are. We never really hear all that much about squashing insurrections in the arab world, do we? That't usually because they are merciless.

It's possible that al Qaeda wants to drive a wedge between between nominally secular arab states and the west but then that would give lie to their actions in Saudi Arabia. Puzzling.

[Beerinkol]

we all know that tunnels go into gaza from egypt, so why cant explosives also go the other way?

They don't need to.

But I doubt it's the Syrians. They'd been warned several times, and they aren't stupid enough to provoke Israeli action against them. More likely it's done with Iran's money by some locals they hired.

[Drugmachine]

Or search my MEMRI thread.

[S.T.D.]

33 confirmed dead: 13 Israelis 20 non Israelis. That would seems to be a poor infidel to non infidel death ratio in a non-infidel country by al Qaeda's standards. It looks to me that this was a target of opportunity; quickly planned, struck at whoever was there. If it was an al Qaeda operation or something by the Syrian security services it would harbor in a new chapter in terrorism since now all Arabs and muslims anywhere both religious and non religious would be targets whether or not a large number of Jews or Infidels are available.

[HedgeYourBets]

In terms of effect though, therefore what? If whoever it was intended to nudge someone's internal or external policies or tip an election it seems that this bombings and other attacks recently have the opposite effect or have no effect.

As a strategic tool, al Qaeda seems to have lost the edge. Strategic terrorism helped change the Spanish government, has put some pressure on non US participation in Iraq. But on the whole - - their War Against the World has shifted to the War Against Whoever We Can Kill Today. A strategic failure unless and until some nominally secular arab state falls to extremist fundamentalism.