Israel Hayom..
11 August '13..
It's complicated. Whoever made the decision over the weekend to launch the reported attack on a jihadi rocket squad in the Sinai needed to take the following into consideration: Israel's peace agreement with Egypt, which prohibits Israel from taking military action inside Egyptian territory; the pressure exerted by the Muslim Brotherhood, the forefather of Hamas, and its involvement in the yet-unfinished anti-military revolution currently underway in Egypt; and terror elements like al-Qaida and Islamic Jihad that are trying to pull the entire region into all-out war.
For the last four and a half years, ever since Israel launched Operation Cast Lead in Gaza (in December 2008), the territory of the Sinai Peninsula has been used to launch terror attacks against Israel, to avoid compromising Hamas' government and military infrastructure in Gaza. The various terror organizations rely on the Egyptian army's desire to avoid confrontations with them, and on the knowledge that Israel is barred from taking any military action in the territory, which is under Egyptian sovereignty, protected under the Camp David peace agreement.
The terrorists built training camps there, and filled weapons depots with arms and ammunition smuggled from countries surrounding Egypt. They rely heavily on the smuggling and intelligence networks set up over the years by Bedouin tribes, which are currently without any sources of income now that the 270-kilometer (170-mile) fence has been erected along the Sinai-Israel border. Those tribes have now opted to help the terror groups and to sell their know-how and expertise for profit. To them, drug-smuggling profits are no different than profits made from smuggling rockets and explosives.
Ever since Operation Cast Lead, and especially since the security fence along the Sinai border has been completed, the Israel Defense Forces and the Egyptian army, with the encouragement of their respective governments, have been wise enough to set up a coordination mechanism to jointly combat the terror that threatens both countries. If the details of this weekend's incident, as reported in the foreign media, are true, the time for action was the moment that the rocket fuse was lit.
The need to preserve the safety of the residents of Israel on the one hand, and the Egyptian desire to prevent a terror attack out of Egyptian territory on the other, apparently bore a cooperation of silence. An Egyptian helicopter or an Israeli drone thwarted the rocket strike. The outcome was unequivocal: four dead terrorists and one foiled attack, according to foreign reports. No need to push the button that activates the early-warning rocket siren.
For now, in light of the internal Egyptian instability following recent political upheavals in Cairo, both countries will apparently keep looking the other way and the entire incident will be classified as an "accident." But the day-to-day work required to preserve the tactical peace will continue to be carried out by intelligence officers on both sides of the fence, and that is a big thing.
Sometimes it is not imperative to tell everyone of your exploits. The foreign press and their reports on this or that strike will continue to enhance Israel's power of deterrence. According to them, Israel has been active in Dubai, Damascus, Malta and Iran. The residents of a country that can run these kinds of operations should be very pleased.
Link: http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_opinion.php?id=5323
Brig. Gen. (res.) Zvika Fogel is a former chief of staff of the IDF Southern Command.
Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.
.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment