The Congress of the United States has agreed to fund Egypt based upon their adherence to the Camp David Accords with Israel. The Camp David Accords gave Egypt what it wanted, namely, the entire Sinai, the Abu Rodeis oil fields, the road infrastructure (all developed by Israel) and, best of all, $2 billion a year in free American tax-dollars.
The Camp David Accords were supposed to provide Israel with a pledge that Egypt would not take up arms against it and would normalize relations. Regrettably, the Camp David Accords have been specifically broken by Egypt. There was a time 10 years after the 1979 signing, when President of Egypt, Hosni Mubarak, publicly canceled the Accords. This was based upon the mandates in the Muslim Koran that you can only make a peace treaty with your enemy for a maximum of 10 years and then you had to take back what you lost in war.
In any case, normalization never took place. Egyptians were not allowed by their government to travel to Israel nor do they do business there. Therefore, the language signed off by Congress mandates a termination of American funding to Egypt.
There is more. Egypt has been assisting Arafat?s PLO in Gaza. They have assisted and facilitated much of the smuggling of heavy and illegal weapons through deep tunnels from the Egyptian side of the border with Gaza. There are also Egyptian officers inside of Gaza, assisting in military training and developing intelligence against Israel. There is every appearance that Egypt?s Mubarak is preparing for war with Israel. It appears that, not only have the Egyptians pledged to attack Israel if Sharon responds to Arafat?s terror war, but that they are actually involved in provoking an Israeli response, notwithstanding Mubarak?s proclamations that he wants peace.
Egypt has slowly drifted into becoming a typical Middle Eastern dictatorship, replete with huge pictures of Mubarak all over the nation. There are few police to be seen, but everywhere you look there are Egyptian soldiers with automatic weapons, even with bayonets mounted, to intimidate the local population. Granted, there are Islamists who wish to take over Egypt and make it into an ultra-Islamic religious state like Iran, so Mubarak has reason to fear.
Egypt has received close to $30 billion from the United States, most of which has been ploughed back into high tech armaments. Egypt is now considered to be a military colossus in the region, although they have NO enemies who wish to challenge them. During regular military ?games? in Egypt a few years ago, an American General observed that Israel had better be prepared for Egypt?s military might. It was during Operation Bright Star, with high level American officials present, that a prominent Egyptian General stated plainly that the Egyptians were preparing themselves for war with Israel.
Presumably, Egypt was intended to replace Iran as America?s cop-on-the-block to protect U.S. vested interests in the oil-rich Persian Gulf and Saudi Arabia. That would mean that the game plan called for Egypt to occupy the Saudi oil fields should Iraq, Syria, Iran and other countries form some sort of coalition to take over the Gulf nations or Saudi Arabia. The problem is that, like Iran now taken over by the Ayatollahs, Egypt could fall into the hands of the radical Muslim Fundamentalists.
This would give radical Islam a huge inventory of the best U.S. weapons, in which case Egypt would invade Saudi Arabia, probably in cooperation with Syria, Iraq and Iran. Needless to say, in that scenario, an attack is not a question of if, but when? That schedule could be advanced if, as seems probable, Mubarak decides to back Arafat in his next big war against Israel.
Theoretically, Mubarak - under pressure from Islamic extremists like the Muslim Brotherhood - may feel that backing Arafat?s terrorists will pacify the Islamists. There is every reason to believe that Arafat has agreed to use his Palestinians as bait to draw Israel into war - in full coordination with Mubarak, Assad, Hussein and Iran.
U.S. Intelligence and the European leadership are aware of this scenario. In a way, this brings Israel back to 1947/8 where the Arab armies were supposed to overrun the new-born State of Israel and solve their political problems. The U.S. State Department has waited for the last 54 years to rearrange Israel?s demise by the same Arab armies beaten in the six prior wars.
The machinations to arm the Arabs were quite extraordinary. One of the tricks was when Caspar Weinberger, without permission or pre-approved funding by Congress, built a full production plant in Egypt to construct the M1A1 Abrams U.S. heavy tank. He later went back to Congress for funding after the plant was already built. Congress had no choice, but Egypt was not technically competent to build a tank from scratch. So Caspar Weinberger then sent fully completed components for the Egyptians to assemble. Weinberger and Georg Bush, Sr.?s plan was to allow the Egyptians to have as many tanks as possible, but to completely bypass the oversight and approval of Congress.
Syria, too, was courted, but, as Syria was on the Congressional list of terrorist nations, the Bush-Baker administration could not directly sell or gift to Syria?s Hafez al-Assad the weapons they wanted him to have. Part of this problem was solved during the Gulf War. Recall that Bush and Baker, through Colin Powell and Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf, allowed Saddam Hussein to evacuate approximately 100 of his Russian aircraft to Iran via a safe air corridor. There they landed and were, as anticipated, promptly confiscated by Iran as war reparations. But, that was not the end of their travels.
Iran did not have a repair-maintenance infrastructure for Russian MIGs. The information floated out of this strange transfer was that the aircrafts? wings were taken off. The aircraft were crated as farm equipment and shipped by rail and truck to Syria.
Syria paid for the aircraft parts using several billion dollars it had received from Saudi Arabia for being part of the phony coalition for the Gulf War. This money was sent to Saddam Hussein and to Iran as payment for the transfer. Recall that it was the Bush/Baker regime who pumped millions into Saddam?s military on the theory that Saddam would be a fire wall against the advancement of Iran against the countries with the rich oil fields.
So, Syria got air wings of Russian MIGs, for which they already had a Russian, courtesy of Bush and Baker. Much of the equipment shipped to the area for the war effort, such as tanks, artillery, helicopters, etc., was ?somehow? left with Egypt and Saudi Arabia as a gift without approval of Congress. We were told that such items as helicopters were supposedly so worn out that they were pushed off the decks of aircraft carriers because they were not worth bringing back to the U.S. for refurbishing. Guess where they ended up.
So, what did Bush, Jr. discuss with Russian President Vladimir Putin on his recent visit besides telling everyone "Here?s a man we can trust". Could it be possible that the American-Russian solution is to allow Israel to lose part of the battle, giving the Palestinians the entire West Bank through a bloody war? Would that satisfy the Islamic drive to get revenge for six lost wars and the shame connected to these losses? Would they stop at overrunning the settlements in Judea, Samaria and Gaza or would they want to complete the destruction of Israel - despite agreements to halt at the 1967 borders? Would Israel?s friends betray them "for their own good"? You bet! As is always said: "Nations have interests, not friends".
The question now is, "Will Arik fall for it?" We know that Shimon Peres and Yossi Beilin would accept defeat to salvage their investment in Oslo. No doubt, they are in deep coordination with any nation to save Oslo, no matter what the cost in lives.
The next question is, "Will this next war be viewed by history as the greatest betrayal of the Jewish State by her friends and allies?"
Will George W. Bush ship Israel?s requested munitions and weapons now, before the war? Or, will the U.S. do as President Nixon and Secretary Kissinger did during the 1973 war and hold back re-supply, in order to make Israel "bleed a little" and be more pliable?
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has gone the extra mile in showing restraint as demanded by Bush, Jr. and Colin Powell. Has Israel once again bled enough to warrant supplies by Bush? Or must Israel capitulate to pacify the Arab world and accept partial destruction to appease? Would the Arabs be grateful to American and European participation insuring that the Jews were vulnerable? I don?t think so.
Israel has been betrayed by the nations of Europe before, so this is nothing new - except for the advent of the Jewish Leftists who still pretend that spit is rain.
Will Bush, the son of Bush, refuse aid in real time? So far he has not responded to the effective attacks by the Palestinian 85,000-man army who has murdered more than 600 Israeli men, women and children, including 19 Americans.
It has been reported that PM Sharon came to Washington to meet with President Bush to request the 800 million dollars promised by President Clinton for Israel?s ignominious flight from Lebanon. Will the President assist Israel? Bush has already followed Clinton in pulling another six month extension via his Presidential waiver to delay moving the American Embassy to Jerusalem. One can sense the fingerprints of Bush, Sr. and James Baker all over this decision.
Emanuel A. Winston is a Middle East Analyst & Commentator
The Camp David Accords were supposed to provide Israel with a pledge that Egypt would not take up arms against it and would normalize relations. Regrettably, the Camp David Accords have been specifically broken by Egypt. There was a time 10 years after the 1979 signing, when President of Egypt, Hosni Mubarak, publicly canceled the Accords. This was based upon the mandates in the Muslim Koran that you can only make a peace treaty with your enemy for a maximum of 10 years and then you had to take back what you lost in war.
In any case, normalization never took place. Egyptians were not allowed by their government to travel to Israel nor do they do business there. Therefore, the language signed off by Congress mandates a termination of American funding to Egypt.
There is more. Egypt has been assisting Arafat?s PLO in Gaza. They have assisted and facilitated much of the smuggling of heavy and illegal weapons through deep tunnels from the Egyptian side of the border with Gaza. There are also Egyptian officers inside of Gaza, assisting in military training and developing intelligence against Israel. There is every appearance that Egypt?s Mubarak is preparing for war with Israel. It appears that, not only have the Egyptians pledged to attack Israel if Sharon responds to Arafat?s terror war, but that they are actually involved in provoking an Israeli response, notwithstanding Mubarak?s proclamations that he wants peace.
Egypt has slowly drifted into becoming a typical Middle Eastern dictatorship, replete with huge pictures of Mubarak all over the nation. There are few police to be seen, but everywhere you look there are Egyptian soldiers with automatic weapons, even with bayonets mounted, to intimidate the local population. Granted, there are Islamists who wish to take over Egypt and make it into an ultra-Islamic religious state like Iran, so Mubarak has reason to fear.
Egypt has received close to $30 billion from the United States, most of which has been ploughed back into high tech armaments. Egypt is now considered to be a military colossus in the region, although they have NO enemies who wish to challenge them. During regular military ?games? in Egypt a few years ago, an American General observed that Israel had better be prepared for Egypt?s military might. It was during Operation Bright Star, with high level American officials present, that a prominent Egyptian General stated plainly that the Egyptians were preparing themselves for war with Israel.
Presumably, Egypt was intended to replace Iran as America?s cop-on-the-block to protect U.S. vested interests in the oil-rich Persian Gulf and Saudi Arabia. That would mean that the game plan called for Egypt to occupy the Saudi oil fields should Iraq, Syria, Iran and other countries form some sort of coalition to take over the Gulf nations or Saudi Arabia. The problem is that, like Iran now taken over by the Ayatollahs, Egypt could fall into the hands of the radical Muslim Fundamentalists.
This would give radical Islam a huge inventory of the best U.S. weapons, in which case Egypt would invade Saudi Arabia, probably in cooperation with Syria, Iraq and Iran. Needless to say, in that scenario, an attack is not a question of if, but when? That schedule could be advanced if, as seems probable, Mubarak decides to back Arafat in his next big war against Israel.
Theoretically, Mubarak - under pressure from Islamic extremists like the Muslim Brotherhood - may feel that backing Arafat?s terrorists will pacify the Islamists. There is every reason to believe that Arafat has agreed to use his Palestinians as bait to draw Israel into war - in full coordination with Mubarak, Assad, Hussein and Iran.
U.S. Intelligence and the European leadership are aware of this scenario. In a way, this brings Israel back to 1947/8 where the Arab armies were supposed to overrun the new-born State of Israel and solve their political problems. The U.S. State Department has waited for the last 54 years to rearrange Israel?s demise by the same Arab armies beaten in the six prior wars.
The machinations to arm the Arabs were quite extraordinary. One of the tricks was when Caspar Weinberger, without permission or pre-approved funding by Congress, built a full production plant in Egypt to construct the M1A1 Abrams U.S. heavy tank. He later went back to Congress for funding after the plant was already built. Congress had no choice, but Egypt was not technically competent to build a tank from scratch. So Caspar Weinberger then sent fully completed components for the Egyptians to assemble. Weinberger and Georg Bush, Sr.?s plan was to allow the Egyptians to have as many tanks as possible, but to completely bypass the oversight and approval of Congress.
Syria, too, was courted, but, as Syria was on the Congressional list of terrorist nations, the Bush-Baker administration could not directly sell or gift to Syria?s Hafez al-Assad the weapons they wanted him to have. Part of this problem was solved during the Gulf War. Recall that Bush and Baker, through Colin Powell and Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf, allowed Saddam Hussein to evacuate approximately 100 of his Russian aircraft to Iran via a safe air corridor. There they landed and were, as anticipated, promptly confiscated by Iran as war reparations. But, that was not the end of their travels.
Iran did not have a repair-maintenance infrastructure for Russian MIGs. The information floated out of this strange transfer was that the aircrafts? wings were taken off. The aircraft were crated as farm equipment and shipped by rail and truck to Syria.
Syria paid for the aircraft parts using several billion dollars it had received from Saudi Arabia for being part of the phony coalition for the Gulf War. This money was sent to Saddam Hussein and to Iran as payment for the transfer. Recall that it was the Bush/Baker regime who pumped millions into Saddam?s military on the theory that Saddam would be a fire wall against the advancement of Iran against the countries with the rich oil fields.
So, Syria got air wings of Russian MIGs, for which they already had a Russian, courtesy of Bush and Baker. Much of the equipment shipped to the area for the war effort, such as tanks, artillery, helicopters, etc., was ?somehow? left with Egypt and Saudi Arabia as a gift without approval of Congress. We were told that such items as helicopters were supposedly so worn out that they were pushed off the decks of aircraft carriers because they were not worth bringing back to the U.S. for refurbishing. Guess where they ended up.
So, what did Bush, Jr. discuss with Russian President Vladimir Putin on his recent visit besides telling everyone "Here?s a man we can trust". Could it be possible that the American-Russian solution is to allow Israel to lose part of the battle, giving the Palestinians the entire West Bank through a bloody war? Would that satisfy the Islamic drive to get revenge for six lost wars and the shame connected to these losses? Would they stop at overrunning the settlements in Judea, Samaria and Gaza or would they want to complete the destruction of Israel - despite agreements to halt at the 1967 borders? Would Israel?s friends betray them "for their own good"? You bet! As is always said: "Nations have interests, not friends".
The question now is, "Will Arik fall for it?" We know that Shimon Peres and Yossi Beilin would accept defeat to salvage their investment in Oslo. No doubt, they are in deep coordination with any nation to save Oslo, no matter what the cost in lives.
The next question is, "Will this next war be viewed by history as the greatest betrayal of the Jewish State by her friends and allies?"
Will George W. Bush ship Israel?s requested munitions and weapons now, before the war? Or, will the U.S. do as President Nixon and Secretary Kissinger did during the 1973 war and hold back re-supply, in order to make Israel "bleed a little" and be more pliable?
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has gone the extra mile in showing restraint as demanded by Bush, Jr. and Colin Powell. Has Israel once again bled enough to warrant supplies by Bush? Or must Israel capitulate to pacify the Arab world and accept partial destruction to appease? Would the Arabs be grateful to American and European participation insuring that the Jews were vulnerable? I don?t think so.
Israel has been betrayed by the nations of Europe before, so this is nothing new - except for the advent of the Jewish Leftists who still pretend that spit is rain.
Will Bush, the son of Bush, refuse aid in real time? So far he has not responded to the effective attacks by the Palestinian 85,000-man army who has murdered more than 600 Israeli men, women and children, including 19 Americans.
It has been reported that PM Sharon came to Washington to meet with President Bush to request the 800 million dollars promised by President Clinton for Israel?s ignominious flight from Lebanon. Will the President assist Israel? Bush has already followed Clinton in pulling another six month extension via his Presidential waiver to delay moving the American Embassy to Jerusalem. One can sense the fingerprints of Bush, Sr. and James Baker all over this decision.
Emanuel A. Winston is a Middle East Analyst & Commentator