I expect a full scale war to erupt with Egypt soon.
it is just a matter for time as the US seems ot have publicly tired of Mubarrak, and Mubarrak has been receiving $2 - $3 billion in aid, and does nothing the US Asks.
Shteinitz: Gov't is Misleading Us Regarding Egypt
12:15 Jun 23, '05 / 16 Sivan 5765
The Chairman of the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, Likud MK Shteinitz, says the gov't is "misleading the nation" regarding its plans to allow Egyptian soldiers to deploy in Sinai.
Shteinitz has long led what is practically a one-man crusade against the plans to allow Egyptian forces to patrol along and near the Philadelphi Route between Gaza and Egypt. He has long warned that the agreement is "bad and dangerous" and that it "will harm Israeli security and destabilize the peace between Egypt and Israel."
It has long been reported that Israel and Egypt have agreed on the placement of 750 Egyptian soldiers along the 14-kilometer Philadelphi Route. Their job will be mainly to ensure that no weapons are smuggled from Egypt into Gaza. Over the past months, thousands of rifles and even some rocket launchers have been smuggled into Judea and Samaria via that route - leading many IDF sources to believe that the terrorists are preparing a post-disengagement war.
However, the deployment of Egyptian forces in the Sinai is a violation of the peace treaty signed between Israel and Egypt in 1979. The legal counsel of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, Miri Frankel-Shorr, has prepared a legal opinion stating that because the treaty was ratified by the Knesset, any violation of it must similarly receive Knesset approval.
Defense Minister Sha'ul Mofaz and Associate Prime Minister Shimon Peres have offered a "compromise" proposal to Egypt, which was reportedly accepted. No details have been forthcoming on its nature, though Prime Minister Ariel Sharon reported on it to the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee this week.
Sharon said that the treaty is not being abrogated: "The Sinai will continue to be demilitarized. All we're doing is switching 750 soldiers who are doing nothing with soldiers who can do the job."
Almost a full year ago, U.S. Congressman Tom Lantos of California, the ranking Democrat in the House International Relations Committee, warned that Egypt was building up its military in preparation for a future war with Israel. He proposed legislation last year to convert half of the $1.3 billion Egypt receives annually in U.S. military aid to economic aid - but the bill was turned down in the House of Representatives. He even announced plans to phase out military aid to Egypt altogether.
"Egyptian military exercises are ominously geared toward an Israeli enemy that doesn't obviously exist," he said at the time. He added that Egypt's threatening behavior is "a policy choice of the Mubarak regime. Lantos also pointed out that Egypt supplemented its navy last year with 11 new battle units, in addition to other weapons procurements.
Israeli military sources have reported that Egyptian war games consistently feature the IDF as the enemy force. |
