Israel Matzav

ElBaradei threatens war on Israel

It should come as no surprise that the man who spent years covering up for nuclear weapons development by 'our Iranian brothers' should now - as a candidate for President of Egypt - threaten Israel with war (Hat Tip: Memeorandum).

In an interview with the Al-Watan newspaper he said: "In case of any future Israeli attack on Gaza - as the next president of Egypt – I will open the Rafah border crossing and will consider different ways to implement the joint Arab defense agreement."

He also stated that "Israel controls Palestinian soil" adding that that "there has been no tangible breakthrough in reconciliation process because of the imbalance of power in the region - a situation that creates a kind of one way peace."

The last time I checked, Gaza isn't part of Egypt (in fact, the Egyptians specifically declined to take Gaza as part of the 1979 Camp David accords) and Egypt still has a peace treaty with Israel. And this guy's considered a 'moderate'!

No. Barry Rubin says we're now back to 1967.

--Despite repeated ridiculing of Israeli concerns, it is increasingly likely that the next Egyptian government will tear up the Egypt-Israel peace treaty.

--Egypt will be an ally of Hamas, a revolutionary Islamist terrorist group that openly calls for genocide against Jews and the wiping out of Israel. (Samantha Powers, alleged anti-genocide champion, where are you?)

--By making such irresponsible and warlike statements, ElBaradei is encouraging Hamas to attack Israel to provoke such a war. As I pointed out, events in Egypt are making such a war inevitable.

...

To make things even worse, such statements cannot be attributed to ElBaradei being a front-man for the Muslim Brotherhood since he is now quarreling with them, though presumably they will still vote for him to be president.

And, of course, it can be honestly said that he is just being demagogic to win votes. The problem is that Arab leaders are often demagogic to win support after they are elected to office or seize power.

Or maybe the Egyptian army will stop such a war? They will be pragmatic and say, "Look, if we fight Israel the United States will cut off our weapons and military aid. We might lose. And what about the waste of resources that we badly need at home?"

But believe it or not a lot of Egyptians think that they could defeat Israel and that only President Husni Mubarak and the Americans are holding them back. A lot of officers probably believe that, being too young to remember the 1967 war. Or they might be swept away by revolutionary, nationalist, and religious enthusiasm. And they might be afraid to seem like Israel's "protectors" and thus traitors to Egypt and the revolution.

Aren't you glad now that the US abandoned Hosni Mubarak? What else could go wrong?

Labels: Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty, Gaza, Hamas, Hosni Mubarak, Mohamed ElBaradei

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 8:26 AM