Many in Jerusalem have taken heart from the appointment of Elliott Abrams as the director of the Middle East desk at the National Security Council.

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: Roadmap to perdition

Elliott Abrams is president of the Ethics and Public Policy Center.

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: The Man Who Lived to Save Cuba

Elliott Abrams is a deputy at the National Security Council.

ECONOMIST: The neocons are suffering one humiliation after another

Republicans like Rubin's mentor, former deputy national security adviser Elliott Abrams, went on to support enthusiastically Israel's surrender of Gaza in 2005, and to push for Hamas participation in the 2006 Palestinian elections.

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: Gingrich's fresh hope

But there could be a more complicated plan behind the recent attack, according to Elliott Abrams, senior fellow for Middle Eastern studies at the Council on Foreign Relations: to drive a wedge between the new Egyptian government and the military.

CNN: North Sinai violence flares again