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Israel braces for Egyptian military push into Sinai
From Geostrategy-Direct, subscription req’d...
Another factor to be thrown into the ME equation.
While Israel’s political leadership is speaking enthusiastically about Egypt’s willingness to cooperate in Israeli plans to withdraw from the Gaza Strip, Israeli military intelligence is more worried than ever about its western neighbor.

Israeli military intelligence believes the regime of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak is preparing to violate the 1979 Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty, which includes a demilitarization of most of the Sinai Peninsula.

Military intelligence has assessed that Mubarak has given his military the green light to deploy a significant amount of assets and troops over the Suez Canal and into the central and eastern part of the Sinai.

Israel’s military intelligence sees disturbing Egyptian military behavior in the Sinai Peninsula. Intelligence sources said the Egyptian military has been deploying so-called police forces in the demilitarized Zone A in Sinai.
These forces have been monitoring Israeli military activity and have been storing fuel for what could be the formation of Egyptian mobile combat units.

Military intelligence believes the Egyptian military wants to pin down a significant part of Israel’s army in case of any Arab-Israeli war, particularly with Syria. Sources said Egypt might have assessed that a bolstered military presence — even in violation of the peace treaty — would concern Israel enough to keep units and assets along its southwestern border rather than move against another hostile Arab country.

The Israeli military has been preparing for such a scenario. Israel has been forming special operations forces to quickly track and destroy Egyptian commando units. The Israel Air Force has been drafting plans to destroy Egyptian Air Force fighter-jets in case of a war with Egypt.
Nobody is predicting this will happen as long as Mubarak is alive. But afterwards — who knows?

Posted by: Alaska Paul 2004-06-18
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=35828