Israel Matzav

Surprise: Egypt still sees Israel as its main rival

More than thirty years after they signed the Camp David 'peace treaty,' Egypt still regards Israel as its chief rival according to a cable disclosed by Wikileaks.

“The United States has sought to interest the Egyptian military into expanding their mission in ways that reflect new regional and transnational security threats, such as piracy, border security, and counterterrorism," said one leaked file.

"But the aging leadership, however, has resisted our efforts and remained satisfied with continuing to do what they have done for years: train for force-on-force warfare with a premium on grounds forces and armor."

A leaked memo addressed to U.S. General David Petraeus ahead of a 2008 visit to Egypt warns that Egyptian Defense Minister Mohammed Hussein Tantawi in particular is the “chief impediment” to U.S. efforts to involve the Egyptian military in fighting modern threats. “During his tenure, the tactical and operational readiness of the Egyptian Armed forces has decayed,” the memo stated.

While America pressures Egypt to update its tactics, Egypt requests a boost in military funding, apparently in hopes of buying advanced weapons and achieving military parity with Israel. Other leaked files reported that Egyptian officials are pushing for more than the $1.3 billion in annual military aid that Egypt currently receives from the U.S.

The Americans also believe that the Egyptian military is in decay.

Egypt's military, the biggest recipient of US military aid after Israel, is in decline, according to American diplomats, who blame the Arab nation's top brass for failing to modernize and adapt to deal with new threats.

US diplomatic memos leaked this month show previously unknown friction between the two allies over military assistance and strategy. Military cooperation has always been seen as an unshakable link between Egypt and the US, even as the political side of the alliance has gone through public ups and downs over Washington's on-and-off pressure on reform and human rights.

The Egyptian - Israeli 'peace treaty' is a farce. Egypt has still not given up its aspirations to destroy the Jewish state more than thirty years after the treaty's signature. As Egyptian blogger Sandmonkey wrote back in 2007:

But then I rememebrd that we- the majority of us anyway- don't want peace with Israel, and are not interested in any real dialogue with them. We weren't then and we are not now. The Entire peace process has always been about getting the land back, not establishing better relations. Even when we do get the land back, it's not enough. People in Egypt lament daily the Camp David treaty that prevents us from fighting. In Gaza they never stopped trying to attack Israel. In Lebanon Hezbollah continued attacking even after the Israeli withdrawel. And the people- the majority of the arab population- support it. Very few of us are really interested in having any lasting Peace or co-existance. I mean, if our left is asking for war, what do you think the rest of the population is thinking?

I think that the Israeli want peace with us because they don't want their lives disrupted. They don't want to have the IDF soldiers fighting in Gaza, rockets coming into their towns from Hamas or having to go to wars against Hezbollah to get their soldiers back. I think they want peace because they want their peace of mind. They view us as if we were a headache. We view them as if they are a cancer.

And this is why there will never really be any peace in the middle-east.

Truer words have rarely been spoken.

Labels: Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty, Sandmonkey, Wikileaks

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 9:55 PM