IMRA Weekly Commentary..
23 August '12..
Yesterday Amos Gilead, head of the Defense Ministry Political and Security Division, could barely control his temper as he sparred with Israel Radio Arab Affairs Correspondent Eran Zinger yesterday over Zinger’s report that Egypt had deployed anti-aircraft missile batteries in the Sinai. [Even if you are not very fluent in Hebrew you can listen from 5:17 in the recording - http://youtu.be/-rXOVmFAbC0 to get the flavor].
Amos Gilead clearly believes that maintaining a public narrative that all is under control with regard to the Egyptian force deployments in Sinai serves Israeli interests.
This could be for one of many reasons:
1. Making the dispute public only makes it harder for Egypt to address Israel’s concerns and remove the problematic equipment and forces.
2. Third parties who have been drafted to help resolve the crisis asked Israel to tone down the talk.
3. It does not serve Israel’s interests to be on record stating that there is a problem since if Israel states that there is a problem and then the problem is not resolved then the very fact that there are ultimately no consequences for Egypt for violating the agreement sets the scene for even grosser violations in the future.
4. Israel has too much on its plate with Iran to risk opening another front.
At first blush the argument that preparing to address the Iran challenge trumps any concerns about Egypt might make sense. And if Mubarak was still in office there might be some logic to it. But that’s hardly the case with the radical Moslem Brotherhood now ruling Egypt. Morsi hasn’t allied with Iran yet, but suffice it to say that the last thing Israel wants to have to worry about is the possibility that a response from Gaza to an Israeli operation against Iran somehow escalates into a clash involving Egyptian forces deployed on our border.
Link: http://www.imra.org.il/story.php3?id=57987
Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook.
No comments:
Post a Comment