Israel Matzav

Did Israel apologize too quickly again?

After the fraud that was put over on in the Mohamed al-Dura incident eleven years ago, Israel supposedly learned not to rush to apologize without investigating the facts first. In incidents such as the Gaza Beach explosions and the Mavi Marmara incident, Israeli seemingly internalized the lesson of not apologizing before conducting an investigation, getting all the facts straight, and determining whether an apology - essentially an admission of guilt in international relations - is necessary or appropriate. This week, all that was learned in the last eleven years was thrown by the wayside.

Israel's President, Shimon Peres rushed to immediately apologize to the Egyptians. So did Defense Minister Ehud Barak. But for what exactly are they apologizing? Elder of Ziyon got me thinking about the question, so I dug into it a bit more. This is from Elder's post:

From Al Masry al Youm:

Egyptian authorities have identified three of the people responsible for carrying out a terrorist attack in Israel, just north of Eilat, on Thursday, in which seven Israelis were killed, according to an Egyptian security source.

The same source added that one of the men identified is a leader of terrorist cells in Sinai, while another is a fugitive who owns an ammunition factory.

It is unclear whether "identified" means "caught." [Or maybe killed. CiJ]

Also:

The source also gave details of an attack by Israeli security forces that left three Egyptians dead on Thursday. One army officer and two police officers were killed when an Israeli helicopter crossed the Egyptian border at mark no. 79, fired two missiles and then hovered over the Egyptian checkpoint, firing its machine guns, said the source.

I've seen reports saying that the IDF accidentally killed between 3 and 5 Egyptians.

I have not seen their names. I have not seen any news about their funerals.

I have also not seen the Egyptian press mention any soldier being killed by the terrorists themselves, including by suicide belts, something the Israeli media reported on.

Actually, the number of Egyptians killed is pretty consistently five. But two of them are referred to as 'unidentified Egyptians.' Well, what the heck does that mean? Are they Egyptians? How do you know? Maybe they're 'Palestinians.' After all, 'Palestinians' (especially from Gaza) and Egyptians look remarkably similar and are often from the same chamulot (extended families). Maybe those killed are the terrorists that Israel was chasing after. Or maybe they're the two Egyptians referred to here, and they participated in the terror attack. Here, we see the Egyptians referred to as five policemen, then as three policemen and two unidentified Egyptians. And here we're told that the three were two policemen and one army officer. Recall that the reports on Thursday specifically quoted witnesses (and I heard at least two on the radio) who were 100% certain that they had been shot at by persons wearing Egyptian army uniforms. Could it be that some of the 'Egyptians' who were killed were actually 'Palestinian' terrorists or Egyptians who collaborated with them? After all, to get from Gaza to where the attack took place they would have had to travel over 200 kilometers (see map above). The fewer people who had to traverse that distance, the less likely the Egyptian army notices or cares. Note this:

Security officials had said that three policemen were killed on Thursday when an Israeli Apache gunship fired a rocket at militants it was pursuing along the border, after attacks on Israeli buses and cars killed eight.

An Israeli military commander said that, after the attacks in Israel, Israeli and Egyptian security forces killed four of the militants on the Egyptian side of the border, which north and south Sinai officials denied.

The state-owned Nile Television reported on Friday that two "unidentified Egyptians" died in the same incident that killed the three policemen.

Moreover, how were they killed? Who shot them? This is from the same link.

It was not immediately clear whether the unidentified men were assailants. Police and military dead are usually identified within hours and there were likely no bystanders in the remote border area where the incident occurred.

And yet, as we will see below, only one person has been identified. But first, more on how they died. There's this:

There were conflicting reports about how the policemen died. The security official said they were killed by unknown gunmen, but a military official told the state MENA agency the night before they were killed by Israeli fire.

Who is the 'military official' and how did he know? Were there any witnesses? Were bullets examined to see what type(s) of weapons shot them? We just don't know, do we?

The article continues:

Security officials earlier said three policemen were killed on Thursday when an Israeli Apache gunship fired a rocket at militants it was pursuing along the border, after attacks on Israeli buses and cars killed eight.

If the missile was fired at 'militants it was pursuing along the border,' how did it hit Egyptian policemen. Where were they? What were they doing? Why?

And finally there is this.

The source also gave details of an attack by Israeli security forces that left three Egyptians dead on Thursday. One army officer and two police officers were killed when an Israeli helicopter crossed the Egyptian border at mark no. 79, fired two missiles and then hovered over the Egyptian checkpoint, firing its machine guns, said the source.

Note that there are now two missiles, and that the Apache now hovers over the Egyptian checkpoint (no idea where mark no. 79 is, but I suspect it's about 60 km north of where the terror attacks took place) 'firing its machine guns.' Was that random? Reckless? Or were they aiming at something? How many times were the machine guns fired? What did the Egyptian police do while they were fired?

And yet...

According to an Egyptian army officer quoted by Reuters on Thursday, the Israeli aircraft was chasing men identified as illegal infiltrators into Israel when it opened fire on them, accidentally killing the Egyptian border guards. [Are border guards a kind of police in Egypt? CiJ]

So before they thought to change the story for Friday's Egyptian newspapers, an Egyptian army officer admitted to Reuters on Thursday that it was all an accident. I suspect Reuters got the truth and MENA got the doctored version.

Finally, we were told before before that Egyptian police would be identified within hours. But four days later only one police officer has been identified - or at least only one police officer has been named. He was Egyptian policeman Taha Ahmed Ibrahim. There's a picture of his funeral here, and I even have an al-Jazeera video report.

So let's go to the videotape and I'll have more for you after the video.



But how do we know he died in this incident, and how do we know he was acting as a policeman and not as a participant in the terror attack (especially given the obvious hostility his family and friends have toward Israel).

So in conclusion, an apology may be appropriate, but here it seems premature. Although the Egyptians keep telling us that five people were killed, even they admit that two of them were 'unidentified.' And of the three 'policemen' (or two policemen and one army officer) who were claimed to have been killed, only one of them has been named and buried. It could very well be that only one policeman was killed, that the rest were terrorists, and it is likely that the one (or more) Egyptians who were killed died accidentally. In any event, the apology should have come after an investigation, not before.

Be that as it may, the Israeli government is unlikely to ask all the questions I just asked, and any investigation is likely to find Israel completely responsible. The government won't want to offend the Egyptians or the Americans, which is why Peres and Barak were both sent to apologize.

What could go wrong?

Labels: Egyptian army, Egyptian-Israeli border, Eilat, Palestinian terrorism

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 11:23 PM