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December 4, 2006

Pipes: Rethinking the Egypt-Israel "Peace" Treaty

It is a part of the human condition to want to judge actions by their stated intentions, not by their eventual results. I have no doubt the intentions of the Westerners who promoted the Egypt-Israel Peace treaty were pure. But the results have been abysmal. (And I would add entirely predictable, given the one-sided nature of the treaty in favor of Egypt and the history of Islam.) Daniel Pipes explains: Rethinking the Egypt-Israel "Peace" Treaty

Ninety-two percent of respondents in a recent poll of one thousand Egyptians over 18 years of age called Israel an enemy state. In contrast, a meager 2% saw Israel as "a friend to Egypt."

These hostile sentiments express themselves in many ways, including a popular song titled "I Hate Israel," venomously antisemitic political cartoons, bizarre conspiracy theories, and terrorist attacks against visiting Israelis. Egypt's leading democracy movement, Kifaya, recently launched an initiative to collect a million signatures on a petition demanding the annulment of the March 1979 Egypt-Israel peace treaty.

Also, the Egyptian government has permitted large quantities of weapons to be smuggled into Gaza to use against Israeli border towns. Yuval Steinitz, an Israeli legislator specializing in Egypt-Israel relations, estimates that fully 90% of PLO and Hamas explosives come from Egypt.

Cairo may have no apparent enemies, but the impoverished Egyptian state sinks massive resources into a military build up. According to the Congressional Research Service, it purchased $6.5 billion worth of foreign weapons in the years 2001-04, more than any other state in the Middle East. In contrast, the Israeli government bought only $4.4 billion worth during that period and the Saudi one $3.8 billion.[...]

Posted by Ruy Diaz at December 4, 2006 12:07 PM

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