The American Spectator : Israel's Egypt Conundrum

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Israel’s Egypt Conundrum

By P. David Hornik on 4.11.12 @ 6:07AM

Does the 1979 peace treaty still have a future?

It’s now Passover week in Israel, and it’s natural for Egypt to be in the air. The holiday celebrates the Israelites’ liberation from serfdom to Pharaoh over three thousand years ago, which launched the trouble-fraught but ultimately successful forty-year trek to freedom in the Promised Land.

But Egypt keeps being intertwined with Israel’s current affairs, too; and, just like back then, in ways that are generally difficult. As in the rocket fired last Thursday morning from Egyptian Sinai at Eilat, Israel’s port and tourist center on the Red Sea. As in the explosion that hit Egypt’s gas pipeline to Israel and Jordan on Monday — the fourteenth to do so, all of them sabotage, in about a year. The pipeline, too, is in Sinai, and has been closed since a previous explosion on February 5.

It’s no accident, of course, that both violent events were associated with Sinai. Since the fall of Hosni Mubarak’s regime last year and the partial implosion of the Egyptian state, the peninsula has become a badlands dominated by global-jihad groups and local Bedouin gangs, some of them also ideologically jihadist. Last August a terror cell crossed into Israel from Sinai and killed eight.

In that case Israel struck back and killed the cell’s leaders — in Gaza, where they were based. But despite the growing incidents and danger, Israel — in a somewhat Orwellian bind — is loath to act in Sinai itself and so far has not. The reason is a fear of endangering peace — that is, the Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty signed in 1979, long considered a bedrock of stability in the region.

That treaty, too, entailed a kind of exodus from Egypt — the evacuation of all the settlements Israel had built in Sinai since wresting it from Egypt in the 1967 Six-Day War. This time, the recompense for leaving Egypt was supposed to be peace — along with a guaranteed, continued supply of natural gas. The latter has now lapsed. As for the former, peace, it endured but only in the coldest of forms; and now, with Islamists dominating the parliament and presidential elections set for May and June, it may be hanging by only the slenderest of threads.

Meanwhile Egypt’s currently ruling military council — which says it will step down after the elections — has announced that it’s beefing up forces in Sinai in an attempt to put a lid on the terror, which is seen as endangering Egypt as well. The move is with Israel’s consent, and is supposed to amount eventually to seven battalions. That’s more than was allowed by the 1979 treaty, which was supposed to keep Sinai demilitarized. In agreeing to these terms and bending the treaty, Israel — especially if the Islamists take power — may be indulging a hope that is close to desperate.

One veteran Israeli military commentator urges realism, saying that when it comes to holding down terror from Sinai, “it’s clear that the Egyptians won’t be doing the job for us.” Instead, if the policy of retaliating against Gaza targets doesn’t work, he says Israel “will have to mull the option of allowing [its forces] to operate in the Sinai” — especially if the alternative is “grave economic damage to tourism and port activity in Eilat and vicinity as a result of rocket fire.” To which he could have added, of course, the endangerment of life and limb.

In any case, how this situation plays out will affect Israel’s evolving view of its position in the region, especially the viability of peace treaties and the wisdom of territorial concessions. But what is already clear is that — as long as jihadist and xenophobic themes hold sway — Egypt cannot just be left, and will have to be coped with.

About the Author

P. David Hornik is a writer and translator in Beersheva, Israel, blogging at PDavidHornik.typepad.com.

Letter to the Editor View all comments (62) | Leave a comment Leave a comment

Jack in Wi.| 4.11.12 @ 7:28AM

There will never, ever be peace in the Midle East until Israel learns how to live peacefully, in the neighborhood it stole. How can you live in peace with the neghborhood bully who continually beats up, steals from, kills, and threatens everyone else in the neighborhood? Israel is a rogue regime which must change or the world will have to do somehing about it. It is time for sane Jews to take over from the lunatics and settle the issues and make a permanent peace.

I can make a few suggestions, but many Jews have made them before me.
1. End the occupation and get back behind the Green Line of 1967.
2. Meet honest settlement offers and honestly get the job done. That means paying a lot of money for reparations to thePalistinians for all the theft, murder, and torture of the last 65 years.
3. Stop the inhumane treatment of the people in the concentration camps in Gaza and the West Bank.

4. Treat the Palistinian citizens of Israel as full citizens by giving them affirmative action to get them equal to Jews in living standards and civil rights. In other words quit treating them as bad or worse then we treated our black citizens.

Learn how to be decent neighbors. Many Jews have talents which would inhance the neighborhood. This return to the ghetto mentality of wall building and hatred of your neighbors has to stop. The Arabs in 2002 offered a complete settlement with full diplomatic relations, and trading rights if the Green Line was returned to. Stick out the olive branch and hand of friend ship, not the fist of terror and hate. It hasn't worked for 65 years, Why should it ever work?

Jack in Wi.| 4.11.12 @ 7:52AM

In regards to Egypt especially and even Jordan. The people are sick to death of the bought and paid for elites and the way they have kow towed to both Israel and it's American puppets. They want real democratic governments. In a real democracy the people have some say inthe matter. The vast majority of people don't like war. The Egyptians can be good friends of Israel if Israel actually treated them as real friends, not as bribed enemies.

In the Book of Leviticus God tells the Jews to. Love your neighbors as yourselves. Also in the Book of Leviticus God tells the Jews to treat the aliens among them as they do themselves. In the book of Exodus God tells the Jews again to treat the aliens and strangers well, for you were once aliens and strangers in the land of Egyot.

In the book of Genesis Abraham lived in peace with the Cannanites, Philistines, and Egyptians. In fact they treated him very well and were very generous to him. The same can be said about his descendents right up until Joseph moved the family to Egypt. The Egyptian Pharoh welcomed them to Egypt and also treated them very well.

God Gave the 10 Commandments to the Jews first, and then they gave them to the whole world. Some of you have forgotten a few of them.
Thou shalt not kill.
Thou shalt not steal.
Thou shalt not bare false witness.
Thou shalt not covet thy neighbors property.

It is time to return to God, the Torah, and the Commandments. It is time to love your neighbor as yourselves. The Jews survived for 3000 years by being useful, honest,l and mostly peaceful neighbors. Lets hope that they return to those fine qualities.

Harry the Horrible| 4.11.12 @ 8:10AM

Actually I would advise following the commands God gave to Joshua to exterminate the Canaanites entirely from the land. Or Palis, as the case the may be.

Herb tarlek| 4.11.12 @ 8:16AM

I think we should enslave the canadians.& mark their ears with an awl.

Herb tarlek| 4.11.12 @ 8:18AM

No more pork products either , Leviticus

Harry the Horrible| 4.11.12 @ 9:37AM

If Canadians ever start launching rockets at the US, the former certainly has some appeal.
As for the latter, I don't know what I'd do without my pulled pork BBQ from Maurice's.

KennesawJack| 4.11.12 @ 11:11AM

An no more cheeseburgers, either. Can't mix dairy and meat, Leviticus.

David W| 4.11.12 @ 10:11AM

Of course Muslims do not have to follow the Ten Commandments, as illustrated by the life and teachings of Mohammed.

KennesawJack| 4.11.12 @ 11:10AM

Jack, let me ask the obvious in reply to your first suggestion above. The "Green Line of 1967" wasn't good enough for the Jew-haters then, what the hell makes you think it will be good enough now? You should remember, it wasn't Israel that initiated the war that brought the present boundaries, it was the hate-driven camel f**kers in the first place. As to the point about reparations, let's say $1,000 from Israel for every Palestinian killed by the Israelis, and $1,000 from Hamas and Hezbollah for every Israeli killed by the Palestinians. That should generate a sizeable budget surplus for Israel. Does that work for you or is this completely a one-way street from your perspective? Oh yes, "and the Pharoah treated them very well." Seems I read something eerily similar to that somewhere in a speech given by a Southern Senator in the 1850's. Good God, Jack, your act is really getting old.

Alan| 4.11.12 @ 11:40AM

C'mon Kennesaw cut the Jew hater some slack! He has to get up every morning knowing Isreal is still there, isn't going anywhere and nobody is going to herd them off this time. Can you imagine what that must be like for a demented life form like him?
So lets pity the poor fool! On second thought, nah!

KennesawJack| 4.11.12 @ 11:57AM

Hah!

Dave Williams| 4.11.12 @ 4:58PM

An article on zose verdamt Chooz...anti-semitic bilge from the cheesehead stormtrooper. Move along, folks, there's nothing to see here....

Bobloblaw| 4.11.12 @ 9:25AM

Why did I know even before I logged on you and your Jew hate would be first to post. You must have a scanner that picks everything and all things Jewish so like an Jew hating super hero, you can respond

T.L.P.| 4.11.12 @ 6:03PM

Why does ANY Jew, still support a man, BORN to a Muslim Father, and RAISED in the Muslim Schools and Mosques of Indonesia?

Why does ANY Jew, still support a Muslim President who told George Stephanopoulos that "The Muslim Call to Prayer, is the most beautiful sound in the world"?

Why does ANY Jew, still support a Muslim President who has TWICE, betrayed Israel, by leaking Top Secret Military Intelligence, to the rest of the world.

He throws Mubarak under the bus, and meets with the Terrorist Group, in the White House, that Assassinated Anwar Sadat.

He kills Khaddafi, for the Crime of Killing 150 of his own people, while doing NOTHING to Syria's Assad, who has Murdered THOUSANDS of his own people, in the streets.

Why did he refuse to "Meddle" in Iran, as they Murdered their own Citizens, in the streets, as they marched for Freedom, yet went after Honduras, when they CONSTITUTIONALLY removed a Chavez Acolyte, after he attempted to Unilaterally Rescind their Constitution, and set himself up as DICTATOR?

"And I saw the BEAST rise from the Sea. And he was given a MOUTH, to speak Haughty and Blasphemous words. And he was allowed to exercise authority for forty two months." Revelation 13-5.

He has come, not to destroy the Prophets, but to Fulfill them.

Even a Blind Man could see it.

Todd S| 4.11.12 @ 6:10PM

Good stuff Tim, I asked RCV that very question. Everything Obama has done in the Middle East has worked against Israel's interests, hard to believe it is unintentional yet RCV will probably be marching to the polls to vote for Obama in November regardless.

T.L.P.| 4.11.12 @ 9:43PM

Twice, at least.

KyMouse| 4.11.12 @ 9:44AM

In December 2007, a survey that was part of the Israel Public Opinion Update found that most (62%) Arab citizens of Israel would rather remain Israeli citizens rather than become citizens of a future Palestinian state.

A poll conducted by Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government in June 2008 reported that 77% of Israeli-Arabs would rather remain in their native land as Israeli citizens than in any other country in the world.

Frank Drackman| 4.11.12 @ 12:41PM

Homo says what?

Melvin| 4.11.12 @ 8:52AM

I posted this yesterday in American Spectator and it definitely applies today.
What makes me think different is, has anyone every looked at this at a different angle? The world constantly harangues Israel in it's ability to defend itself. Even here in American Spectator, the vitriol oozes out between the letters and lines.
After the war, those who survived the Nazi Concentration Camps eventually settling in the new state of Israel. Even with the extermination of six million Jews there was still hatred within the world that something still had to be done with Jewish situation.
Ever single human being that survived the death camps has seared into their minds the tortuous deaths of family members from which makes in my opinion Post Traumatic Stress Disorder nowadays look like a cold.
The Jews made a blood oath, "Never Again." Survivors through the years have handed down to family members the horrors of the Concentration Camps so that succeeding generations of Jews would never forgot or became quiescent.
Then along came Gamal Abdel Nasser Hussein, the second President of Egypt. Nasser had a vision of become the leader of the Arabs and creating a greater pan Arabia. Nasser was going to use Israel has the device to unite all the Arab Countries and if victory was achieved, would put Nasser in a very favorable position to not only be a leader of the Country of Egypt but the whole Middle East.
As history dictates Israel didn't cooperate with Nasser's Pan Arabian ambitions. Nasser and the other Arab Countries realized that they could not be Israel militarily, so they created a new Army out of the ashes of the burnt out tanks in the Sinai, and Golan Heights. The PLO the Palestinian Liberation Organization. The Arabs also had a problem with a people, and that problem was the Palestinians that had just recent got their butts kicked by trying to overthrow the King of Jordan.
Nasser by creating a proxy Palestinian army that would carry on a war of attrition with the Israelis.
This proxy war would be funded by the Arabs of the rich oil states.
No longer how long this war that isn't a war took, no matter how much money it costs it's sole purpose was to grind down Israel politically to the point of weakness that the Arabs would just walk in and defeat the Israelis politically or military which ever came first.
Israel wasn't stupid, they saw that the Arabs were turning world opinion against it by the propaganda of those long suffering Palestinians at the hands of Israel, Western universities were perfect for the absorption of this type of propaganda to turn Israels lone supporter the US against it. Because todays university students are tomorrows political leaders.
By the Arabs creating the Palistinian refugee camps in Gaza, this served two purposes. First was the camps were perfect to generate the picture of a thousand words to Western journalists. Two, it kept the Palestinians being an Israeli problem instead of an Arab problem.
It is no secret that the Arabs detest the Palestinians so keeping them caged up in Gaza was the perfect solution.
"Damn Melvin, did you have to make such a lengthy discussion of this?" Yes, because with all he complaints directed as Israel from this to that, was instigator has been left out........? The Arabs. The Arabs have come out of this mess smelling like roses having the West and the Palestinians doing its dirty work for them.
Does the modern day Israeli get up every morning wanting to go to war with it's neighbors? Its a successful welfare state, Israelis would rather hang out at the beach all day or go on holiday.
A fact that the West doesn't take into account is that Israel treats Arabs(within Israels borders) and Palestinians better than the PLO.
The West never calls out the Arabs and the Iranians on their intentions on the destruction of the Jewish state of Israel. In all honest how many times can anyone remember at least one time where the Arabs and Iran were publicly reprimanded by the West, for their interference and wanting the destruction of Israel?
For Christ sakes even the UN agrees with the Arabs and Iran.
So by reading my lengthy post what the Sam hell do anyone expect Israel to do? Remember at the beginning of my post where Jews uttered their prophetic words right after the Holocaust, said, "Never Again." Damn right, "Never Again."
If the West truly wants peace in that region, then they must publicly criticize the Arabs, Iran, and the Palestinians, that is the only way that peace will come to that region. For that to happen, the West needs to be stop butt kissing the Arab Sheiks who are the unseen hands of that regions and the world's turmoil.

Ken (Old Texican)| 4.11.12 @ 9:14AM

Melvin,
well spoken!
Mike from Wisconsin has become a scroll button exercize for all of us.

Indy| 4.11.12 @ 9:15AM

Anti-semitism is on the rise, everywhere. Never do you hear about the Palestinians in Jordan. You could make an argument that Jordan has apartheid policies.

Israel is in a bad position, the Russians have moved troops near the border of Iran, this Administration is no friend of Israel (sadly, Obama will still win the Jewish vote) the UN has long been against Israel. Egypt and Turkey are moving towards Iran politically, the Muslim Brotherhood is gaining power...but Obama gave the easy order to take out Osama so his foreign policy is viewed as amazing, I just don't get it.

Israel is being backed into a corner, troubled times are here and escalating fast.

RCV| 4.11.12 @ 12:36PM

Melvin - every word is true. Thanks.

Todd S| 4.11.12 @ 5:59PM

What do you think of Peter Beinart's new book "The Crisis of Zionism" RCV? Beinart perfectly represents the Jew hating Jew so common in the far left, Karl Marx being the prototype. His pathetic book of lies is being feted by the left by the likes of Thomas Friedman, Jimmy Carter and I bet Obama thinks it is a great book as well knowing his hate for Netanyahu. Don't you feel a cognitive dissonance from being a Jewish supporter of Israel and a liberal when there is so much hate for Israel from the left?

RCV| 4.11.12 @ 7:19PM

Maybe I hang around a different kind of liberal Democrat here in Southern California, but all of my political colleagues are strong consistent supporters of Israel, and have been for years. Most are also AIPAC members. Yes, there are leftists who don't support Israel, and yes there are leftists who are anti-semites. There are also Republicans and rightests who regularly oppose Israel and are anti-semetic, like Pat Buchanan and Ron Paul.

I'm only responsible for my own opinions. And by the way, I'm an Epsicopalian, not Jewish.

Clint| 4.11.12 @ 7:34PM

You're An Obama Troll Liar, RCV.

Eric Dondero-Rittberg.
Fmr. Senior Aide, US Cong. Ron Paul, 1997 – 2003
Campaign Coordinator, Ron Paul for Congress, 1995/96
National Organizer, Draft Ron Paul for President, 1991/92
Travel Aide/Personal Asst. Ron Paul, Libertarian for President
1987/88

" Is Ron Paul an Anti-Semite? Absolutely No. As a Jew, (half on my mother’s side), I can categorically say that I never heard anything out of his mouth, in hundreds of speeches I listened too over the years, or in my personal presence that could be called, “Anti-Semite.” No slurs. No derogatory remarks. "

Todd S| 4.12.12 @ 1:15AM

My mistake about you being Jewish. I never thought of the bay area being particularly supportive of Israel, certainly not at Berkley which is infested with Israel haters. I think you know what I mean about that. It is true there are the Pat Buchanan and Ron Paul types on the right but they are marginal and never set policy for Republicans. That is not true at all on the left, I mentioned a few names already about that. What about Eric Holder praising Al Sharpton today, a noted Jew hater who has blood on his hands?

Let me say I respect what you have to say and you are quite knowledgeable so you do add to the discussion unlike most lefties who come here.

RCV| 4.12.12 @ 1:44AM

Can't disagree with you about Sharpton. It's a disgrace that anyone appears with him - he is a demagogue of the worst sort, with the blood of the Crown Heights murderers on his hands.

Todd S| 4.12.12 @ 11:58AM

You are honest and that is what I like about despite our political differences. I don't expect you to suddenly become a conservative but it must bother you that Obama has surrounded himself with anti-Semites like Rev Wright and Bill Ayers and appointed a true racist like Eric Holder.
Obama actually could have done alot of good to improve race relations if that was actually his intention but has done the exact opposite. This is the mark of a dark ideology of dividing people against each other and I know it must bother you.

RCV| 4.12.12 @ 12:31PM

Todd: I don't see Obama as in any way divisive, indeed quite the opposite. When I disagree with him on issues, which happens from time to time, I say so. I also appreciate your candor and civility, and always enjoy discussing issues with you. Take care.

P.Smith| 4.11.12 @ 9:19AM

Anytime someone accepts the council of Jimmy Carter he is making a huge mistake. Israel won through the Sinai through loss of blood should have never given it back to Egypt in the first place. Land for peace can never work and only emboldens the adversary, peace through the threat of total annihilation of its enemy is the only hope for Israel.

David W| 4.11.12 @ 10:13AM

Have Israel make it clear - any rocket fired from Gaza or the Sinai will result in Israel annexing that bit of land where the rocket was fired (and any land between it and the Israel border). Maybe the islamists will realize then that their rockets will only result in losing territory.

John786| 4.11.12 @ 10:15AM

Israel should spend it energies on solving the Palestine issue especially absorbing the millions of real Palestinian refugees rather than endlessly looking for enemies outside its borders and forcing settled jewish populations to make aliya. For Israel all roads lead to Palestine: as the sun rises in the east.

TrueBlue | 4.11.12 @ 11:52AM

Unfortunately, even if the Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank WANTED to become part of Israel, if they did get absorbed they would massively outnumber the Jewish and pro-Israel Arab citizens. They'd vote them all out of power and the whole area would turn into a massacre of Jews, and shortly after the desert wasteland it was before the Jews came back to redevelop it prior to WW2 (something every anti-semite loves to forget).

John786| 4.11.12 @ 1:41PM

Pro Israel Arab ( Palestinian) citizens: does such a category actually exist or is it a theoretical category in the wet dreams of Zionism. Next: pro apartheid Africans, pork chops for Jews, Christian monotheism, Habeus corpus in America, freedom in Saudi Arabia. And so on...

Occam's Tool| 4.11.12 @ 12:24PM

Hmmm. What about that illegitimate Hashemite Kingdom next door to Israel? That was part of the Palestine mandate, I recall.

RCV| 4.11.12 @ 12:41PM

Yes, part of the Palestinian mandate given to Britain by the League of Nations for the express purpose of creating "a national Homeland for the Jewish people." Jordan IS Arab Palestine and always considered itself so until Israel took the West Bank from it in the 67 war.

KennesawJack| 4.11.12 @ 1:05PM

And wasn't it Jordan who drove out the Palestinians after the '67 war?

RCV| 4.11.12 @ 1:10PM

They drove out the PLO and its supporters because they didn't want competition for representation of the Palestinian Arabs. After Israel became a state and Jordan invaded and kept the West Bank in 1948, the Palestinian National Congress ratified Jordan's incorporation of the territory into Jordan and declared formally that Jordan "is and always has been Arab Palestine."

RCV| 4.11.12 @ 1:13PM

...in retrospect, Israel's most unfortunate mistake was retaining most of the West Bank after 1967, instead of giving it back to Jordan. It should have, in my view, kept a wide swarth around Jerusalem and other areas of particular importance to the Jewish people, and returned the rest of the West Bank with its Arab populace to Jordan. We wouldn't have heard of "Palestine" after that; the Jordanian always knew how to deal with Arafat and his ilk.

But, as They Might be Giants might have said, "it's nobody's business but the {Israelis}"!

Nite| 4.11.12 @ 8:35PM

Yes, after they tried to kill King Hussein.

Ken (Old Texican)| 4.11.12 @ 1:51PM

Muhammed 786
You and I will come to bayonet-points soon enough. Why don't you keep killing women and children and quit challenging MEN?

You are a c0ward and a pedophile. Get lost....and cast into darkness. I can help.

John786| 4.11.12 @ 2:40PM

Ken ( the rapturing)Texan,
I thought you'd been rapturerd ken. But talk of bayonets - I wish you would get raptured. I don't think Prophet Jesus ( pbuh) would approve. WWJD. I fear you don't have even an atoms weight Of Christianity in you. By the way ken I am a follower of Christ (: in a monotheistic kind of way).

RCV| 4.11.12 @ 7:20PM

... all Christians I know are monotheistic as well.

John786| 4.11.12 @ 8:05PM

Trinity, divine nature of Christ: This is not monotheism of the Jewish, muslim variety. Islamic monotheism (tauheed) does not allow for prophets to be divine. I am a Muslim Christian in the sense that I believe in Christ ( Easa): as a messenger of God, his miraculous birth, his miracles: this is mainstream Christianity minus trinity, divine nature of Christ, crucifiction- resurrection.

RCV| 4.12.12 @ 1:50AM

Of course it's not monotheism of the Islamic/Judaiic variety. That's what makes some of us Christians, some of us Muslims and some of us Jews. We all worship the one God of Abraham. But we have differing views about who Jesus was, and what His nature/relationship to God was. But that's okay. As your Qu'ran teaches, in the end, God will tell each of us in what way we got it right or wrong.

Todd S| 4.11.12 @ 6:17PM

An Islamonazi like yourself would want that of course, all the easier to destroy Israel from within. Israel is not stupid though besides their brainless liberals. Even our resident liberal RCV knows you Middle East Muslims are devious bastards that can never be trusted because you will only break your word.

John786| 4.11.12 @ 8:14PM

I'm not sure what you're getting at. I hope we all want to support rights of everyone in the holy land irrespective of religions or ethnicity. Trying to create an exclusive religious- ethnic state in historic Palestine will end in tears.

Todd S| 4.12.12 @ 1:23AM

Nice try but not buying your act. You would be happy to see Iran nuke Tel Aviv if that is what it took to destroy Israel, hear enough of your rants here to know that. Humiliating to know that a few million Jews have defeated your pathetic armies numerous times and you have to go whine to the UN about how unfair it is that they kicked your asses. If Allah was real and Mohammed a real prophet, surely you could do better than that right?

RCV| 4.12.12 @ 1:52AM

But creating an Islamic state with Sharia law binding on non-Muslims is quite alright, right John?

Mark Thomason| 4.11.12 @ 10:46AM

"But despite the growing incidents and danger, Israel -- in a somewhat Orwellian bind -- is loath to act in Sinai itself and so far has not."

Except that it did, and killed a group of uniformed Egyptian security personnel inside Egypt, and refused to apologize, and tried to pretend it didn't happen. So they haven't except for when they have. Whenever they want. Like all their other borders. The Egyptians have not forgotten, even if you have, and that is a large part of the Israeli problem in the Sinai.

Dr. John| 4.11.12 @ 10:53AM

Factual corrections--the Egyptian security personnel were killed in a crossfire between Israeli forces and terrorists, after the terrorists crossed into Israel from Sinai last August and murdered eight Israeli civilians. The Israeli forces came to the border but not into Sinai itself. It was a spontaneous hot pursuit, not an operation. Nevertheless, Israel was requested by the Egyptian government to apologize, and did so. This didn't stop the Israeli embassy in Cairo from being overrun soon thereafter.

Frank Drackman| 4.11.12 @ 1:02PM

Apologize?
For What?!, did the US apologize for Hiroshima, Dresden, the Burning of Atlanta?
If you'll remember, Moe-Hammed Atta walked like an E-gyp-tian, and if some Maryland State Trooper had done his job, arrested his A-Rab ass instead of letting him go with a warning, maybe 5,000 Americans would still be alive.

Frankie, "Yes I'm Jewish" Drackman

Dr. John| 4.11.12 @ 5:18PM

Just giving the facts to correct Mr. Thomason's fantasies.

Argot| 4.11.12 @ 11:23AM

Can anyone here factually state if U.S. military troops are still actively (rotation after rotation) in a garrison in the Sinai? (Egyptian territory)

This is part of a U.N. mission with a number of nations providing some military presence.

This Sinai mission has already been around for over 25 years -- if it is still current.

Who has current information on this? My suspicion is that U.S. troops are rotated in and out of this ongoing Sinai mission every12 months or so. Yet I don't hear any concerns by leadership in our government as the muslim bros. get ready to beat the drums of war against Israel. Any American (British? Canadian?) troops in the Sinai will be right in the thick of the conflagration.

Ammo Guy| 4.11.12 @ 11:54AM

Yep, still there

http://www.mfo.org/

Occam's Tool| 4.11.12 @ 12:23PM

No problem exists with Egypt that could not be cured with 20 kilotons on the Aswan Dam. Perhaps a gentle reminder would do it. Jack, would you be so kind as to put the targeting flags up there and stick around, oh, say, 30 minutes? Thanks.

Paul Kotik| 4.11.12 @ 12:56PM

Or better yet, Jack, draw a circle around your butthole with your red lipstick and assume the Mohammedan prayer position atop the dam.

Alan| 4.11.12 @ 1:24PM

Occam, how many times in history has some self-rightous self annointed self described pious figure decided he knew what the Jews had to do to become more Jewish according to him and where in history has it ended well for Jews? Ala the Stormfront hero who heads this message string for example. When somebody like this guy tells Jews what THEY need to do if your Jewish, RUN, don't walk, RUN or prepare to defend yourselves.

Herb| 4.11.12 @ 1:29PM

Breaching the Aswan High Dam would be the world's biggest nuclear toilet flush. The Egyptians aren't stupid, they've known since Nasser that the dam is their Achilles' heel. It was probably that which drove Anwar Sadat to make peace with Israel and maybe even now the Muslim Brotherhood hasn't gone totally crackers. Not yet, anyway.

Frank Drackman| 4.11.12 @ 12:44PM

Ironic, isn't it, that the only Middle Eastern Country that's tolerant of Jack in Wi's Homo-Ness is the only one that gets his panties all in a wad...

Frankie "The Nose" Drackman

Theo Prinse| 4.11.12 @ 3:48PM

Tnx mr. Hornik. Israel is increasingly becoming the only democracy in the Middle East where Egypt, like Turkey is more and more shifting away into fundamentalist darkness.
Strange that it is so differently presented in the media where Pakistan with the same problem is concerned.
Anyone can foresee that things are getting out of hand in Egypt .. which is why Israel is obliged for regional and international security reasons (the Suez canal) to take over control of the Sinai (or Gaza or West bank for that matter).
This policy is the more likely with Syria becoming a second civil violent Iraq.
Syria has to be redrawn as well into a Maronite, Kurdish, Alawite and Sunni autonomous states where ethnic groups can resort and find shelter because Iraq proves hostilities in Syria will last for decades.
This political demographic path is similar to what must become the Confederate future of South Africa with its current murderous, corrupt, criminal ideologically deranged African National Congress, the South African Communist Party, PAC, COSATU ANCYL etc.

Nite| 4.11.12 @ 8:38PM

I can not begin to imagine the terrible situation that Israel is live in on a daily basis. Then their closest Allie, (the US) is stabbing them in the back at every chance, thanks to Obama.

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Carney Goes Birther on Major Garrett

Aaron Goldstein | 12:10AM

UPDATED: More on Lerner Pleading the Fifth

Kaylin Bugos | 5.21.13

Did Virginia Republicans Just Elect Terry McAuliffe?

Ross Kaminsky | 5.21.13

Lois Lerner Will Take the Fifth