Ambassador Tzvi Mazel
Ambassador Tzvi MazelHezki Ezra, Arutz Sheva

Israel's former ambassador to Egypt, Zvi Mazel, currently a researcher at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs (JCPA), believes that the Egyptian army is not going to be able to successfully fight ISIS. In the end, he believes, the IDF is going to have to do the job.

“The Egyptian army has not collapsed, and it is very large, with 600,000 soldiers,” said Mazel. “But for two years they have been fighting guerrillas in Sinai, unsuccessfully. They are just not experienced enough in guerrilla warfare.”

Eventually, it is very possible that ISIS will take over Sinai – placing them along Israel's longest border. If that happens, the IDF is going to have to fight ISIS on its own. “Already some of ISIS is in Sinai, operating near the Israeli border,” said Mazel.

The problem is not just in Egypt, but in nearly all Arab countries. “They have huge armies but they fall apart in the face of a threat from a relatively small group,” said Mazel. “Unlike in the north, where there are some groups that hold Hezbollah back from opening a front against us, ISIS are true fanatics who are looking forward to fighting Israel.

The situation in Sinai, in fact, is more tense than it the Golan, where there is an active revolution going on, added Mazel. “If the U.S. were to send 100,000 soldiers to Iraq they could bear ISIS,” he said. “But the U.S. does not want to be involved in Iraq again, and neither has it sent any substantial ad to Egypt. In the end, we are going to have to fight them.”