Israel: Egypt + Hamas = Terror. I Say, Egypt + Hamas = BULL SHIT!
I’m baffled everytime I read the news and find that Israel is bashing Egypt. I guess I shouldnt be surprised because allies or not, what friends does Israel care to keep in the region? Its an odd reality because there are plenty of Arab nations willing to bend over for a dollar (or shekel) but still Israel has no true Arab partners. Some would say its because of Arab leaders and their fear of befriending Israel in front of their peers. Its kind of like dating an ugly girl, you enjoy her “services” but you’ll be damned if you let your friends see you with her.
Thats partially true but theres more to it than that. Its a very dangerous relationship to entertain because you never know when you could become a “state sponsor of terror” or “guilty of funding terror” or even having “weapons of mass destruction”. Egypt has been fielding criticism for a while and are still in the infantile stages of what I like to call, “The Axis of Evil Training Program”.
All you have to do to be enrolled in the AETP is live within striking distance of Israel or deal weapons to someone who is. Thats it and Egypt has been a student of the program since long before George W. coined the phrase. Heres whats going on most recently…
Is Egypt happy when Israel bleeds?
The flood of smuggled arms into the Gaza Strip from Sinai raises the suspicion that the answer is yes. Israel’s casualty count from Gaza-based terror is still relatively low, but the impression is that Cairo has no great desire to stop the smuggling – and that 30 years after making peace with Israel, Egypt has no real objections to attacks continuing on southern Israel from Gaza.
Information recently obtained by Israel arouses suspicions that Egypt has allowed additional terrorists to enter Gaza from Sinai, despite Jerusalem’s protests after it allowed 85 Hamas men – including several terror experts – to cross the border earlier this month.
Allow me to analyze, I’ll have to put on my gloves and surgical mask for this one.
First rhetorical question, “Is Egypt happy when Israel bleeds?” Thats a strong presumption and no one reading this has to read on to know what Haaretz thinks. Haaretz says “yes” and I wont disagree, the Egyptian people would love for Israel to bleed to death but as for the Government entity of Egypt which is the subject of this article the answer is Absolutely NOT! Egypt and Israel are financially tied and weakness for Israel equals weakness for Egypts economy. Hosni Mubarak is not interested in fighting any battle against any nations whatsoever whether that be a proxy war through its neighbors or not, Hosni Mubarak is a business man first and foremost and business equals money. That should come as a surprise to no one. In actuality I think its fair to say Israel is happy when Egypt bleeds. If they are so concerned about the flow of weapons into Gaza that supposedly is aided by Egypt then maybe we could exchange border duties. We will stop weapons from flowing into Gaza and they will stop pushing the flow of drugs from Israel into Egypt. Fair enough? I thought not.
Next section…“Israel’s casualty count from Gaza-based terror is still relatively low, but the impression is that Cairo has no great desire to stop the smuggling – and that 30 years after making peace with Israel, Egypt has no real objections to attacks continuing on southern Israel from Gaza.” I’ll start from the end of the sentence. If Egypt objects to attacks on Israel or not shouldnt really matter should it? We already know the business and financial aspect but what benefit is there to be gained by Egypts objections? Solidarity? If thats your concern then stop producing articles like this. “Cairo has no great desire to stop the smuggling”. Here’s an Idea why doesnt Israel stop the smuggling? Its not hard to imagine when you remember that Egypt only enjoys partial control of Sinai thanks to the Camp David peace treaty. Least of that control is our airspace, Egypt is not allowed to fly its planes over Sinai, meaning we dont really control it, Israel does, they own its airspace and maintain guards and troops will into its territory. Therefore its YOUR PROBLEM! How frustrating is that? Imagine how I feel, I’m yelling at my computer screen.
Now my favorite part! Information recently obtained by Israel arouses suspicions that Egypt has allowed additional terrorists to enter Gaza from Sinai, despite Jerusalem’s protests after it allowed 85 Hamas men – including several terror experts – to cross the border earlier this month. Firstly I dont know if Israels “information” is really reliable since its info tends to always incriminate everyone within shooting distance like the admittedly bad intelligence provided by Israel for invading Iraq. Ohhh how quickly we forget. If Israel knows that exactly 85 dudes were “allowed” in and they all belonged to Hamas and that several of them are terror experts then you already know too much to be a victim, go find them and arrest them. The idea that Egypt would work with Hamas is beyond reason anyways. Hamas, the offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood and the Egyptian Governments biggest enemy, the biggest threat to the rule of the Mubarak dynasty!
Now for my final thought…This may surprise you but try to soak this in…Weapons in Gaza and the rest of the occupied territories are VERY good for Israel. If you are trying to eradicate a group of people its very beneficial that they have guns so they can kill each other. Its very beneficial that the world views them as disposable animals. Its very beneficial that they try to attack you because no one will feel bad when you bull doze their houses, cut off all their resources and slaughter their children. If the Palestinians were running around with daisy’s in their hands, spreading peace love and joy to one another and baking pies for the IDF, it would be MUCH harder to victimize them without world scrutiny and even the scrutiny of international courts.
Just keep that in mind when they vilify Egypt for supposedly aiding in activities which benefit Israel.
Join the Conversation
DB,
As a loyal Haaretz reader, allow me to reply to your critiques. But first, I should say that your post was full of paranoid concerns that are not really true, and there are some points you may have missed since not everything in the Israeli press is translated into English.
After reading several articles (in Hebrew) on this topic in the last few months, I think the Israeli position is that Egypt systematically discriminates against the Bedouin community that lives in Sinai (which are more ethnically related to Bedouins in the negev and Saudi Arabia than to other Egyptians). This systematic campaign includes the transfer of thousands of people from the Cairo area to work in the tourist industry in Sharam el Shaikh and other resorts. These Cairo-based Egyptians “settlers” take all the jobs and resources away from the Bedouins and have thus marginilized them within Sinai. Some Bedouins think the other Egyptians dislike them since they collaborated with the Israeli occupation before 1981. Either way, since they are out of a “regular” job, many Bedouins have turned to smuggling, either weapons into Gaza, drugs into Egypt, Darfur refugees into Israel, or whatever. A small minority is actually believed to be collaborating with al Qaeda, and the Egyptian government has arrested scores of them after the bombings in Taba and Dahab.
The Israeli government believes that the best way to stop the smuggling is for Egypt to improve the living conditions of the Bedouins, and Israel has asked Egypt to do so. However, Egypt strongly objected telling Israel to mind its own business. I also recall reading that some Bedouins have asked Israel to help them by pressing the Egyptian government, something that got them labelled as traitors.
As for the smuggling of weapons, the debate in Israel goes something like this: for 6 years Hezbollah armed with rockets unabated by Israel, which resulted in a 33 day war last summer. Israel wishes to avoid such a scenerio in Gaza, and some see the need for a large ground operation in the Gaza strip sooner rather than later. I don’t think Israelis believe Mubarak wants to collborate with Hamas, but more something like cutting some deal with Hamas to give him domestic leverage to crack down on the Muslim brotherhood. I have read several explanations of the 85 terrorists allowed into Gaza, and most of those articles suggested something of the sort.
I should also mention that Israel knows that once Mubarak is gone the Muslim brotherhood will take its place, and then the peace treaty they signed goes out the window.
A short point on the drug smuggling: as I said above this is done by Bedouins marginilized by both Egyptian and Israeli governments. All they are trying to do is make a living and neither country is good at giving them jobs.
And your thought about some Israeli desire for Palestinians to kill each other and the Israeli conspiracy to slaughter children – simply not true. Most Jews in Israel want the Palestinians to get along peacefully, form democratic institutions and negotiate a peace treaty with Israel without resorting to violence. 72 of the ~90 Zionist Knesset members support a Palestinian state in the West Bank, Gaza, and are willing to some compromise on Jerusalem (though there is no consensus on details). The problem is that Israelis don’t trust the Palestinians, they are convinced the Palestinians want to throw them in the sea or to flood Israel with refugees who want to return to their (ceased to exist) homes and in a generation throw the Jews in the sea. I highly doubt an Israeli soldier wants to kill children, but when terrorists hide between civilians then civilian casualties are inevitable. Remember, in the last 4 months Sderot has been bombarded with over 1000 rockets. That’s almost 10 per day. And Sderot is within the green line, these people are not settlers or occupiers or soldiers, and firing rockets on them IS A WAR CRIME. Whether Israel’s reflex for a military solution is constructive is another story altogether.
So in short, Egypt should improve the living conditions and economy of the Bedouins in Sinai, and Israel should similarly improve conditions of their Bedouins. This and improved dialog between the peoples is the only way to improve relations.
oh come on…
the danger is in the lack of democracy, terrorinsts can rule the country and encouredge terror against israel in order to ease their own political life.
Hmph! well, first, I always find it rather ironic when a country who is a significant arms producer protests that arms smuggling is going on. Kind of like a tobacco company protesting about second hand smoke…The fact is there is a serious demand for weapons in the Gaza strip. I doubt the Egyptian government is promoting filling that demand; more likely, like most criminal networks, it happens and will continue to happen exclusive of their policies. Perhaps the problem lies not with the motivation of the suppliers, but what reasons there are for the demand in the first place. It’s an area that Israel certainly has more influence over…
Maybe Haaretz reads Roz Al-Yousef?
http://memri.org/bin/latestnews.cgi?ID=SD174407
Scream about MEMRI if you want, but if you expect me to listen you need to point out a significant factual error or omission.
MyTwoCents,
Israeli Textbooks and Children’s Literature Promote Racism and Hatred Toward Palestinians and Arabs
http://www.wrmea.com/backissues/0999/9909019.html
Israel started Hamas
http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2006/01/27/end_of_the_road_map.php
Hi, Rabndal. The article on Israeli textbooks is eight years old, but I’m willing to assume nothing has changed. Is your point that Israelis are responding to Egyptian textbooks, or that Egyptians are responding to Israeli textbooks, or that both countries teach their children bigotry?
On the emergence of Hamas, I’ve seen that before but really don’t know details. Isn’t it ironic that the enemy of your enemy isn’t necessarily your friend?
Israel never should have given up the Sinai for this so called ‘peace’.