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| Africa North |
| Rethinking the Egypt-Israel "Peace" Treaty |
| 2006-11-22 |
| by Daniel Pipes [NY Sun title: "Time To Recognize Failure Of Israel-Egypt Treaty"] Ninety-two percent of respondents in a recent poll of one thousand Egyptians over 18 years of age called Israel an enemy state. In contrast, a meager 2% saw Israel as "a friend to Egypt." These hostile sentiments express themselves in many ways, including a popular song titled "I Hate Israel," venomously antisemitic political cartoons, bizarre conspiracy theories, and terrorist attacks against visiting Israelis. Egypt's leading democracy movement, Kifaya, recently launched an initiative to collect a million signatures on a petition demanding the annulment of the March 1979 Egypt-Israel peace treaty. Also, the Egyptian government has permitted large quantities of weapons to be smuggled into Gaza to use against Israeli border towns. Yuval Steinitz, an Israeli legislator specializing in Egypt-Israel relations, estimates that fully 90% of PLO and Hamas explosives come from Egypt. |
| Posted by:anonymous5089 |
| #9 one nuclear bomb - delivered to the Aswan dam - would wipe Egypt off the map, economically and militarilly |
| Posted by: Frank G 2006-11-22 23:25 |
| #8 The treaty gave Arabs an entirely new way to persecute their Jihad against Israel. It lost Israel the strategic depth (the thing that saved us in 1973) of Sinai. It lost Israelis the elbow space (which every nation needs --- if only for psychological reasons). |
| Posted by: gromgoru 2006-11-22 22:17 |
| #7 I guess that at times bribes are better than warfare. |
| Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 2006-11-22 19:10 |
| #6 Steve W., Yep, it's important strategy to keep them away from outright action. Doesn't stop their treachery tho. |
| Posted by: SpecOp35 2006-11-22 16:14 |
| #5 Missed your calling Doc. |
| Posted by: Shipman 2006-11-22 12:53 |
| #4 Before judging this too quickly, consider the strategic implications of the maligned treaty -- -- it took Egypt off the board. No Arab war against Israel is possible without Egypt. Simply can't work. By getting a peace treaty coupled with US arms support (and Glenmore is right, those weapons have some heavy strings attached), Egypt no longer threatens the peace. Combine that with Israel's known but undeclared nuclear deterrent and you have the reasons why there has been no major state-to-state war since 1973. |
| Posted by: Steve White 2006-11-22 12:05 |
| #3 Funny to see the only thing Carter really gets any credit for during his horrible term may now be looked at in the unfavorable light of history. |
| Posted by: rjschwarz 2006-11-22 11:30 |
| #2 I still think the Egyptians should have rolled over Libya long ago and taken their oil. Arabs can beat up other Arabs. After that they could save the people of the Sudan from poverty and misgovernment while claiming even more oil. The obsession with Israel is just stupid. |
| Posted by: rjschwarz 2006-11-22 11:27 |
| #1 Egypt's equipment may now be on par with Israel's, but what about the operators? Arabs have not yet shown a lot of prowess in modern-style warfighting, and even less in modern equipment maintenance. If Egypt had NOT signed the peace treaty they would not have US weapons, but they would still have weapons - French, Chinese, etc. Having them armed with US weapons means they have a spare parts vulnerability - ask Iran. |
| Posted by: Glenmore 2006-11-22 08:28 |