Border with Egypt
Border with EgyptIsrael news photo: Flash 90

Mohammed Jamal Arfa, a senior Egyptian journalist linked to the Muslim Brotherhood, has launched a frontal attack on Israel following its demand that Egypt withdraw armored vehicles it recently deployed in the Sinai Peninsula.

In an article in the mouthpiece of the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice party, Arfa wrote that Israel is the one that demanded that former president Hosni Mubarak and his Head of Intelligence, Omar Suleiman, deploy large forces in Sinai to fight the terror organizations there. Yet now that President Mohammed Morsi is doing just that, he accused, Israel claims Egypt is breaching the Camp David peace accords and is concerned it will not withdraw the forces.

Arfa enumerated what he said were Israeli breaches of Camp David over the past few years. Israel violated the security annex of the treaty when it deployed armor and planes into the "D Area" demilitarized zone adjacent to Israel, he wrote. In June, 2011, Israel handed over the task of guarding its southern border from the Border Police to an infantry brigade equipped with heavy weaponry, in a breach of the treaty, according to Arfa.

In addition, the journalist claimed, Israel placed armored forces and planes in Area D during Operation Cast Lead, and some of the bombs it dropped on Gaza hit Rafah's Egyptian side. Israeli forces crossed the border with Egypt while claiming it was chasing after terrorists, and even killed Egyptian soldiers in August 2011, he went on. He was referring to the deadly cross-border terror raid that left eight Israelis dead August 18.

Arfa asked rhetorically: "Are they allowed to do this while we are forbidden to?"

He called upon the Office of the President and the Ministry of Defense in Egypt to launch an informational campaign against Israel, and expose Israel's breaches of the peace treaty. One reason for doing this, he explained, is that Israel is trying to enlist the U.S. Congress against Egypt in the matter of the breaches of the treaty.