Sunday, September 05, 2004

How peace with Arabs is working out

In 1979 Sadat came to Israel and made the first step towards peace with the Jews. Jimmy Carter (then US president) promised Egypt 2 BILLION dollars annually for that peace. Also, Egypt was given back Sinai, which they had lost again in their war against Israel in 1973. Giving back Sinai was costly to Israel, in a number of ways. Firstly, more than 7000 families had settled there.
Secondly, Israel had invested heavily into Sinai, it is the only place where oil can be found in the local region.

But Israel wanted peace, heavy pressure was put on Menachem Begin (Israeli PM) by Carter (coercion is a more appropriate term), and eventually, Israel gave back Sinai, in return for which Egypt officially recognized Israel, opened a diplomatic mission in Tel Aviv and formally ended the existing state of belligerency. No matter that the deal was totally lopsided: Egypt had attacked Israel three times since its birth; Israel got nothing substantive in return; and Israel was not compensated for the losses sufferend in the war, or the losses incurred upon by abandoning its Sinai investments to the Egyptians.

Sadat was murdered soon after. He was no saint, had he had his way in 1973 then Israel would have ceased to exist. But there was some hope that since then, his desire for peaceful coexistence was sincere.
But Sadat was assassinated for his brave initiative. And Mubarak - his successor - was not made of the same stuff. No war has been declared officially, but the very first opportunity he saw to recall his ambassador, he used with both hands.
And as
this article shows, his covert support for Arab Palestinian terrorists is ever increasing:
"It's crystal clear that Egypt supports terrorism against Israel by enabling Hamas and others to transform Sinai into their logistical rear," Steinitz told The Jerusalem Post. "The real policy of Egypt is to get the Israelis and Palestinians to bleed together."

According to data provided by Shin Bet chief Avi Dichter, in the past 18 months Egypt has allowed arms smugglers in the Sinai to bring 5,000 rifles, 330 anti-tank rocket launchers, several hundred RPG rockets, many mortars, and millions of bullets and other kinds of munitions into the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

"You don't take 5,000 Kalashnikovs in a few suitcases. You take them with many, many trucks and jeeps. So it is not something that a country can ignore," Steinitz said.
Combine this with the fact that Egypt has received over 50 BILLION (yes, 50.000.000.000) US dollars from the US in general aid, supplemented by more billions in military hardware, and the conclusion that Egypt is in fact still on a war footing with Israel is inescapable. It is low-intensity, covert, but is a war nonetheless.

On a related note is this statement from Jordan present king Abdullah.
"Jordan king slams PA over concessions" Another successor of an Arab who made peace with Israel, now in effect chastising Arab Palestinians for compromising on their positions (which were untenable to start with). Helpful to peace, I'm sure. Can't wait for peace with the Persians.

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