Israel Matzav

Egypt actively helping weapons smugglers

Last night, I noted the Israeli authorities' consternation over Egyptian indifference to arms being smuggled to the 'Palestinians' through the Sinai desert. But there's more to it than that. According to Yuval Steinitz, former Chairman and now Deputy Chairman of the Knesset Defense and Foreign Affairs Committee, Egypt is actually an active participant in smuggling weapons to the 'Palestinians.'

Israel has determined that Iranian-financed weapons to the Palestinian Authority flow through a port in Egypt.

Israeli officials said many of the weapons ordered by the Hamas-led PA and aligned insurgency groups stem from Sudan's Darfour region. They said the weapons were transported by land and then shipped through the Mediterranean to ports in Egypt.

"The weapons to the Palestinians are brought in through Egyptian ports and El Arish and are imported by land from Sudan," Yuval Steinitz, the deputy chairman of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, said. "Those latter imports have to traverse Egypt on their way to Gaza. There is no way that the Egyptian government is not colluding with the weapons shippers."

In a series of interviews in the Israeli media, Steinitz, the former chairman of the Knesset committee, asserted that Egypt has supported the massive smuggling of weapons to the Gaza Strip. Steinitz said Egypt regards Hamas and other Palestinian insurgency groups as a key asset in the Arab confrontation against Israel.

If you look at the maps I have pasted above, you will see that Darfur, which is in the Western Sudan, is actually quite far from the Gaza Strip. It seems from Steinitz's description that the weapons are being shipped northward across western Egypt (or eastern Libya), and then over water from a place like Matruh to El Arish (which is east of Port Said). The other way they could go - which is not what Steinitz said - is across the entire Sudan and then up the Red Sea to the Gulf of Suez.

That's certainly very different than what I posted from Zev Schiff yesterday.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 12:16 PM