www.ccun.org
www.aljazeerah.info
Al-Jazeerah History
Archives
Mission & Name
Conflict Terminology
Editorials
Gaza Holocaust
Gulf War
Isdood
Islam
News
News Photos
Opinion
Editorials
US Foreign Policy (Dr. El-Najjar's Articles)
|
|
Of Course, Israel Is Egypt's Enemy
By Khalid Amayreh
PIC, Al-Jazeerah, CCUN, January 10, 2011
Some Israeli officials have voiced surprise at revelations
published by Wikileaks showing that the Egyptian military continues to
view the apartheid Israeli regime as the primary strategic threat facing
Egypt. This is despite the passage of more than 30 years since
the signing of the Camp David peace treaty between the two states in
1979. According to the revelations, American diplomats have been
frustrated as the Egyptian army continued to retain the erstwhile
military doctrine which viewed Israel as the enemy. The US,
which is often at Israel and beck and call, has been trying to convince
leading Arab states that their enemy is Iran and Sunni Islamist
movements, such as Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood, not Israel which
committed a virtual genocide in Gaza two years ago and is constantly
trying to kill the prospects of Palestinian statehood by keeping up the
construction of Jewish colonies on stolen Arab land. One leaked
file quoted an unnamed American diplomat as saying that "the US 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." However, Egypt
reportedly resisted the flagrant American intervention in shaping the
Egyptian strategic military doctrine, with one high-ranking Egyptian
army commander stressing that Israel was still targeting Egypt in a
variety of ways, including having plans for the possible re-occupation
of the Sinai Peninsula. Well, it is an expression of daring
audacity on the part of these arrogant American diplomats to expect the
sons of Egypt to morph themselves into Israel lovers and forget the tens
of thousands of Egyptians, civilians and servicemen, who were murdered
by Israel. The Egyptian people are not about to forget
the massacres of Bahr el Bagar school, the Abu Za'abal factory, and the
massacre of Egyptian POWs at the instruction of Ariel Sharon in addition
to the indiscriminate bombings of Egyptian civilian areas during the
so-called war of attrition prior to the 1973 war. It is true
that Egypt , mainly due to economic and other reasons, had to sign
the infamous peace treaty at Camp David, which only formally ended the
state of belligerency between Israel and largest and most powerful Arab
country. But it is also true that the vast majority of Egyptians
continued to hate Israel as a hostile and criminal entity despite all
American inducements and bribes to create good chemistry between
Egyptians and Israelis. In the final analysis, it would be a
form of morbid imagination to expect Egyptians, who nearly on a daily
basis watch Zionist thugs and terrorists murder, terrorize and savage
their coreligionists and brethren in Palestine and destroy their homes,
bulldoze their farms, and expel them form their places of residence.
It is morbid imagination to expect members of the Egyptian armed
forces to fall in love with the killers of their fathers and forefathers
who fell in battle with Zionism on Palestinian and Egyptian soils.
It is even more morbid to expect the Egyptian armed forces to
abandon their old doctrine and adopt a new one based on the unnatural
and mendacious assumption which views other Arabs and
Muslims, not Israel, which usurped Palestine and expelled
its people to the four corners of the world, as the enemy.
Egypt and its kind-hearted people may not be going through the best
of times. But what is in the heart is in the heart, and no amount of
Kafkaesque metamorphosis would succeed in deviating the needle of the
Egyptian people's compass away from its natural direction. I
know that Israelis can easily visit Egypt, dine in its restaurants and
bask on its beaches. But it is also true that these Israelis who do so
are often met with inimical eyes and sullen hostility wherever they go.
I also know that these Israelis, especially those who would reveal their
identity, never feel secure or at peace. This is why they stop speaking
Hebrew in public and often claim to be Italians or other Europeans.
To be sure, Israel itself never came to view Egypt as a non-hostile
state. In fact, one exaggerates little by saying that Israel continues
to view Egypt as constituting the main strategic threat facing Israel.
Yes Israel feels the threat is dormant, but it is real.
Moreover, it would be foolhardy on the part of Egyptian strategic
planners to ignore or dismiss intelligence reports suggesting that
Israel is constantly acting to destabilize and weaken Egypt in a variety
of ways. These include, inter alia, encouraging some expatriate
Copts to rise up against the central government, encouraging Nile-basin
countries such as Ethiopia to undermine Egyptian interests, keep
Egyptian-Iranian relations in the worst possible state, and constantly
threatening to instigate Congress, which is tightly controlled by the
Jewish lobby, to press for reducing or cutting off US economic and
military aid to Egypt if the Egyptian regime doesn't behave according to
script. A few years ago, Avigdor Lieberman, the thuggish
Israeli foreign minister, went as far as threatening to bomb the Aswan
Dam. This is what he said in public. One would wonder what
he might have said in private. Another point, which really
illustrates both the temerity and naivety of many American diplomats, is
the belief that cordial relations between Israel and an Arab-Muslim
country are possible as long as the Palestinian plight remains
unresolved. This is probably the reason the Americans couldn't bring
themselves to understand the recent turnabout in the Israeli-Turkish
relations. Finally, I have one advice to the self-absorbed
American diplomatic community. Don’t take Arab and Muslim peoples
for granted, don't overlook the feelings of millions of Arabs and
Muslims as this myopic approach would eventually boomerang
onto you.
Fair Use
Notice
This site contains copyrighted material the
use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright
owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance
understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic,
democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this
constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for
in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C.
Section 107, the material on this site is
distributed without profit to those
who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information
for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml.
If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of
your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the
copyright owner.
|
|
|