Barak Looking at Closing Sinai Border During Hot Alerts

Barak looking at the possibility of a law which would allow security officials to close Israel’s border with the Sinai Peninsula.

By Elad Benari

First Publish: 9/7/2012, 2:16 AM

IDF patrols near Sinai border

Flash 90

Defense Minister Ehud Barak has instructed officials in his ministry to examine the possibility of a new lawwhich would allow security officials to close Israel’s border with the Sinai Peninsula whenever there is an alert of a possible terror attack or kidnapping in the area.

Barak’s instructions were made following recent assessments made by the army and intelligence agencies.

Speaking during a Defense Ministry assessment on Thursday, Barak said, “In light of the changes in the situation in the Sinai and the risks to Israelis there, I am ordering to examine the possibility of allowing the competent authorities to close the border to Sinai when needed.”

He added, “Unfortunately, even when there are hot alerts about attacks or the possibility of kidnapping Israelis in Sinai, some Israelis ignore them and still go to the Peninsula. We need to act now and not wake up when an abduction or attack happen.”

The Sinai Peninsula has been in a state of anarchy since former Egyptian PresidentHosni Mubarak was deposed last year. Terror groups have taken advantage of the situation to carry out attacks from the region.

Egypt recently launched a crackdown on Sinai terrorism, in response to a terror attack near the border with Israel in early August, in which 16 Egyptian officers were killed.

Last month, the Counter-Terrorism Bureau issued a serious warning against travelling to the Sinai Peninsula, and called on Israelis vacationing in the area to leave immediately.

It was later reported that the warning was prompted by the release of an Al-Qaeda operative from a prison in Gaza and his return to Sinai.

Another warning issued by the Counter-Terrorism Bureau on Wednesday reiterated the travel warning to the Sinai and said that Israelis should avoid any visit to that area.

SOURCE

Tags: Ehud Barak ,Defense Ministry ,Sinai Peninsula ,Sinai Terrorism

Egyptian Official: The Balance of Military Power Will Change

Senior Egyptian security official says that the balance of military power in the Middle East will change significantly in the near future.

 IsraelNationalNews

By Elad Benari, Canada

First Publish: 8/31/2012, 10:08 PM

IDF patrols near Sinai border

Flash 90

A senior Egyptian security official said on Thursday that the balance of military power in the Middle East will change significantly in the near future, following a visit by President Mohammed Morsi in China this week.

The official, who spoke to the Arab website Al-Moheet, said that during his visit to China, Morsi signed a series of security agreements which will produce a new military reality in the Middle East. The comments were translated by Arab affairs expert Dalit Halevi.

“Wait and see the Eagles of Egypt in their new clothing,” the official warned Egypt’s neighboring countries. “They will be protected by missiles which will hit our enemies, even if they are a thousand miles away.”

The Egyptian Air Force, said the official, is expected to dramatically upgrade its capabilities, equipment, aircraft and personnel training, in cooperation with China. He said the upgrade will surprise all parties in the Middle East and North Africa. The Egyptian air defense forces will be able defend the Egyptians against any aggression, he said.

Egypt launched a crackdown on Sinai terrorism in response to a recent attack on Egyptian officers. Egyptian police last week said they had identified 120 individuals in North Sinai who are wanted for attacking police stations and killing policemen. A security source in the area said that there are close to 1,600 terrorists in the area.

Israel reportedly became concerned after Egypt moved anti-aircraft missiles into the Sinai Peninsula without Israel’s permission. Such equipment is prohibited in Sinai by the Egypt-Israel peace treaty.

An Egyptian military source later denied that his country was deploying troops in Sinai beyond the limitations stipulated in the 1979 Camp David Accords.

Morsi hinted this week that his country’s military operation in Sinai is being carried out in a way that fully honors international agreements.

Morsi said that Egypt threatens no one, and that its forces’ presence in Sinai should not be a cause for concern on the regional or international levels.

He also said that the peace treaty with Israel will remain intact, but refrained from saying whether he would agree to meet any Israeli leaders.

(Arutz Sheva’s North American Desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Arutz Sheva articles, however, is Israeli time.)

Tags: Egypt ,Mohammed Morsi ,Egyptian army

Confirmation: Egypt ‘Deployed U.S.-Made Tanks, SAMs in Sinai’

Western defense sources say 20 to 30 M-60A3 tanks, Avenger SAMs and F-16s deployed along border with Israel.

IsraelNationalNews 

By Gil Ronen

First Publish: 8/26/2012, 6:37 PM

U.S. F-16 jets

Reuters

 

Egypt has deployed U.S.-made surface-to-air missiles and tanks near the border with Israel, in a breach of the 1979 peace treaty, reports the World Tribune.

Western defense sources said the Egyptian Army has deployed “a range of assets supplied by the United States.” They cited main battle tanks (MBTs) and surface-to-air missiles (SAMs), particularly in the northeastern Sinai area, between the coastal city of El Arish and the border with Israel and Gaza.

“Right now, all of the [Egyptian] heavy weapons have been deployed along the Israeli border,” a defense source said.

The U.S.-made MBTs were identified as the M-60A3, which was exported to Egypt in the 1980s. The sources told the Tribune that the Egyptian Army has deployed between 20 and 30 of these in eastern Sinai.

The Boeing-produced Avenger air defense system, also deployed near the Israeli border, contains the Stinger surface-to-air missile and was supplied to Egypt over the last five years.

The sources said Egypt has also deployed Dutch-produced YPR-765 armored personnel carriers which contain 30 mm automatic gun turrets. The Egyptian Army is believed to have about 430 such APCs.

Israel has demanded that Egypt withdraw the American MBTs and missiles from eastern Sinai. The United States has acknowledged discussions with Cairo and Jerusalem over the Egyptian military deployment in Sinai. On Aug. 23, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton telephoned her Egyptian counterpart to review Israeli complaintsover violations of the demilitarization of the peninsula.

“This call was in keeping with a series of contacts that we’ve had in recent days with both Egyptians and Israelis,” State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said, “encouraging both sides to keep the lines of communication open between them, to talk directly about any issues of concern, and the importance of working through the security challenges in the Sinai in a way that, first and foremost, strengthens Egypt’s security, but also has a positive impact on the security of neighbors and the region as a whole.”

Meanwhile, the United States Department of Defense has awarded an $8.7 million contract to United Technologies for support of F100-PW-229 engines for Egypt’s order of 20 F-16 Block 52 multi-role fighters. The Tribune said that the Egyptian Air Force has flown at least two F-16s near the Israeli border in August.

Tags: Egypt -Israel ,Egypt border ,Sinai border

Israel becoming concerned by Egypt’s Sinai deployment

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Last week, a leading Israeli media analyst suggested that Israel‘s government should be more concerned about Egypt’s growing military deployment in the Sinai Peninsula, instead of focusing all its worries on Iran.

“The development that, more than any other, should set off warning bells in Jerusalem, is the unilateral action taken by the Egyptians in Sinai during the past few days,” wrote Ha’aretz columnist Avi Issacharoff.

“While Israel is prattling itself to death on the Iranian issue, the decision makers here are choosing not to respond to the fact that Egypt is moving forces into Sinai, contrary to the terms of the peace agreement,” Issacharoff continued.

Earlier this summer, Israel did approve the deployment of additional Egyptian soldiers to Sinai to help battle the regional terror groups taking root there. Members of many of Sinai’s Bedouin tribes have in recent years joined the ranks of groups like Hizballah and Al Qaeda. Two weeks ago, the members of one such group killed 17 Egyptian soldiers while perpetrating a cross-border raid into southern Israel.

However, it now appears that Egypt is deploying forces far beyond what Israel approved (the 1979 Camp David Accords put strict limits on the amount of forces Egypt can deploy in Sinai). According to some reports, in addition to a much larger than expected number of infantry, Egypt is also rolling armored forces into Sinai.

Issacharoff called the deployment the “most extensive activity by the [Egyptian] army in Sinai since the Yom Kippur War 39 years ago.” And that should be cause for concern.

At present, those forces are ostensibly being used to root out terrorist forces, which would ultimately benefit Israel, too. But officials believe Egypt is only going to do what it needs to placate public opinion at home, and nothing more. In the meantime, those new forces deployed to Sinai are not likely to be removed.

On top of all this, Egypt is now ruled by a group that maintains as one of its long-term goals the destruction of Israel. And just last week, the Muslim Brotherhood removed the former heads of Egypt’s military and installed more compliant generals.

Anyone not seeing these developments as cause for concern has his or her head in the sand.

According to pan-Arab newspaper Al-Quds Al-Arabi, Israel’s government is indeed concerned, and has asked Cairo to withdraw its armored forces from Sinai. Experts have noted that tanks and armored vehicles will at any rate be useless against the mountain-entrenched Bedouin forces in central Sinai.

SOURCE

Netanyahu Tells Egypt: Keep Tanks out of Sinai

Netanyahu has demanded that Egypt cease sending tanks into the Sinai without approval, a “blatant violation” of the 1979 peace treaty.

 IsraelNationalNews

By Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu

First Publish: 8/21/2012, 12:43 PM

Egyptian soldiers and APC in Sinai

Reuters

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has demanded that Egypt cease sending tanks into the Sinai without Israel’s approval, a “blatant violation” of the 1979 peace treaty, the MaarivHebrew-language website reported Tuesday.

Mark Regev, spokesman for the Office of the Prime Minister, told Arutz Sheva, “We are not commenting” on the report.

An Egyptian newspaper reported that local Bedouin claimed that Egypt already has sent dozens of tanks to the northern Sinai, near the Israeli border. Thereport has not been confirmed, and most other media outlets have reported that Egypt is preparing to send in tanks, planes and additional soldiers to combat rampant terror.

Al Qaeda-linked terror cells, Bedouin and Hamas terrorists have taken control of the Sinai Peninsula in recent years, particularly since the end of the Mubarak regime.

A source close to Prime Minister Netanyahu told Maariv the planned buildup, if it already has not taken place, is “a blatant violation of the peace treaty.”

The Obama administration wields influence over Egypt because of its $1.3 billion annual aid to Cairo, and the office of Prime Minister Netanyahu has appealed to the White House to pressure Egypt to stop the deployment.

Israel knows that it is to its benefit if the new Egyptian regime can defeat terrorists in the area, but it also fears that Egypt will not be successful and that terrorists could gain possession of tanks.

Another concern is that Egypt would maintain its new military presence for an unlimited amount of time and establish “facts on the ground: that would represent a de facto change in terms of the treaty, which requires Israeli approval for additional forces.

An unstated concern of almost every Israeli who remembers the Yom Kippur War is that a renewed Egyptian military presence in the Sinai could set the stage for another war, especially if Iran or Hizbullah attacks from the north.

Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood President Mohammed Morsi is scheduled to visit Iran next week to re-establish ties with Tehran, despite the objections of the United States.

Former Obama administration Middle East envoy Dennis Ross wrote in The Washington Post Monday that the U.S. must make clear to Egypt that if it continues to violate its commitments under the Camp David Accords, it would jeopardize its U.S.funding.

Ross said that Egypt’s current rulers, the Muslim Brotherhood, must “come to terms with reality,” that they were committed to the Accords. He said that the denial by Egyptian President Morsi that he had responded to a letter of congratulations sent to him by President Shimon Peres, and the attempt by the Muslim Brotherhood to blame the Mossad for the Sinai terror attack, prove that the group cannot tolerate any circumstances that contradicts its philosophy.

Tags: Sinai terror ,Mohammed Morsi ,1979 Egypt-Israel Treaty

Egyptian Anti-Aircraft Missiles Reported in Sinai

Anti-aircraft missiles can only be intended for Israel’s jets, because Sinai terrorists don’t have aircraft.

 IsraelNationalNews

By Gil Ronen

First Publish: 8/20/2012, 10:16 AM

Israeli F-16

Israel news photo: Flash 90

According to a report on Voice of Israel government-sponsored radio, Egypt has moved anti-aircraftmissiles into the Sinai Peninsula.

The radio station’s Arab affairs analyst, Eran Zinger, reported Saturday that Egypt has deployed both anti-aircraft and anti-tank missiles near Israel’s border in the Egyptian Sinai, without Israel’s permission.

Such equipment is prohibited in Sinai by the Egypt-Israel peace treaty. “Egypt is trying to change the situation in Sinai,” Zinger said.

If the report is true, the move is an overtly hostile one toward Israel and can only mean that Egypt is preparing for hostilities with the Jewish state. Ostensibly, Egyptian forces moved into Sinai only in order to crush terrorist activity there. However, the terrorists possess no aircraft. Therefore anti-aircraft missiles can only be intended against Israel’s air force.

In the prelude to the Yom Kippur War of 1973, Egypt moved anti-aircraft missiles close to the Suez Canal, despite a commitment not to do so. Israel chose to ignore the move, and the result was catastrophic, when the missiles shot down numerous IAF jets after war broke out.

The Israeli government has asked Egypt to withdraw the armored vehicles it deployed in Sinai 11 days ago, in contravention of the peace treaty between the two nations, according to Al-Quds Al-Arabi, which quotes Israeli sources.

Israel said that the deployment of armored forces in the El Arish area was only reported to it retroactively by Egypt, after the forces had already been deployed. Once Egypt supplied Israel with the full details about the extent of the deployment, the Jewish state asked Egypt to withdraw its armor from northern Sinai.

Tags: Egypt-Israel ,Yom Kippur War ,Sinai Peninsula

Cairo uses illicit Sinai tanks to bargain for massive US aid

DEBKAfile Exclusive Report August 20, 2012, 9:04 AM (GMT+02:00)

Tags:  Egypt   Israel   US   Sinai   Iron Dome   Eilat 

Egyptian M60 tanks transported to Sinai Aug. 9

Israel’s deployment of an Iron Dome anti-missile battery in Eilat Sunday, Aug. 19, came five days after two Grad missiles were launched against its southernmost town. They exploded harmlessly.DEBKAfile’s military sources report they were primarily a warning to Egypt from al-Qaeda-linked Islamist terrorists to hold off even its minimal raids and arrests of suspected terrorists in northern Sinai.
The Egyptians have meanwhile moved a battalion of 19 Egyptian M60A-3 tanks into the peninsula, using the Islamist attacks on Egyptian and Israeli military targets of Aug. 8 as their pretext for violating the Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty’s military protocols. Fearing the tanks are there to stay, Israel has asked the White House, the Pentagon and the State Department in Washington to intervene with Cairo and get them withdrawn.
Cairo never requested or received Israel’s permission to bring the tanks over.
Only when Jerusalem complained to Washington did Egyptian liaison officers contact IDF officers. They did not ask directly for permission only skirted around the tank issue by consulting IDF officers on the effectiveness of a tank offensive on the armed Islamists’ mountain strongholds, which Cairo shows no other sign of seriously contemplating. For now, Egypt is counting on Israel not making too much of a fuss so as not to be accused of obstructing efforts to fight terrorists.
On the diplomatic front, Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi and new Defense Minister Gen. Abdel Fattah El-Sissi filed a complaint of their own in Washington. They accused Israel of frequently breaching the same military protocols over the years, each time the IDF used tanks around the Philadelphi pocket, Rafah and the Kerem Shalom crossing to fight off Palestinian terrorist attacks and rocket fire from the Gaza Strip.
Those enclaves are marked D in the peace accords and barred to heavy weapons, like Area C in North Sinai on the Egyptian side of the border.
Israel is concerned that the Egyptians intend keeping the tanks on the Israeli border permanently or even adding some more as part of the ruling Muslim Brotherhood’s tactics for eroding the military clauses of the peace treaty with Israel until they are meaningless.
The Egyptian tank issue weighing on Cairo, Washington and Jerusalem has become additionally entangled in several broader issues: the war on terror, Cairo’s bid for lavish economic aid, President Barack Obama’s outlook on the Muslim Brotherhood’s grab for power in Cairo and signs that Egypt’s new rulers are considering cozying up to Tehran.
1. Egypt keeps on avoiding its promised major counter-terror offensive in Sinai even after losing 16 troops in a terrorist attack. Its actions are limited to small police raids on suspects, a couple of arrests here and there and impounding computers. Confrontations with armed gunmen and operations against their command posts are systematically avoided.
Indeed the armed Salafist gangs felt safe enough last Wednesday to raise their heads again and fire two Grad missiles against Israeli southernmost town of Eilat. According toDEBKAfile’s exclusive, counter-terror sources, Cairo got the message: Even minor police raids must stop or else the Islamists would seriously target Eilat and other parts of southern Israel, further complicating Egypt’s relations with the US and Israel.

The warning was taken seriously by the IDF high command, which Sunday night, Aug. 19, moved an Iron Dome missile defense battery over to Eilat.
2. Washington for its part is quietly pushing President Morsi to make good on his promise of a military operation to root out al Qaeda affiliates from central Sinai. DEBKAfile’s Washington sources report that the Egyptians don’t say this outright, but are hinting that they are waiting for President Barack Obama to order the release of substantial aid funds before embarking on this counter-terror offensive or withdrawing their tanks from Sinai. They are very clear about the amounts that would satisfy them: A grant of half a billion dollars from the United States and a US guarantee for an International Monetary Fund loan of $4.6 billion.
Our sources report that the Muslim Brotherhood regime needs an urgent influx of cash to pay public sector wages on Sept. 1.
3. President Morsi is holding another move in abeyance pending the Obama administration’s response to his urgent financial needs. He has not yet replied to Tehran’s official invitation for him to represent Egypt at the non-aligned summit of Muslim nations taking place in the Iranian capital on Aug. 30.  The inference is that if Washington meets Cairo’s economic aid requests, Morsi with refuse Iran’s invitation; but if it falls short, the Muslim Brotherhood will start a process of rapprochement with Iran, the first since Islamist revolutionaries seized control of Tehran in1979-80.

Israel Asks Egypt to Take Armor Out of Sinai – Report

Arab paper: Israel was only informed retroactively about deployment of armored forces in Sinai.

 IsraelNationalNews

By Gil Ronen

First Publish: 8/19/2012, 4:45 PM

Egyptian armor enters Rafah

Reuters

 

The Israeli government has asked Egypt to withdraw the armoredvehicles it deployed in Sinai ten days ago, in contravention of the peace treaty between the two nations, according to Al-Quds Al-Arabi, which quotes Israeli sources.

Israel said that the deployment of armored forces in the EL Arish area was only reported to it retroactively by Egypt, after the forces had already been deployed. Once Egypt supplied Israel with the full details about the extent of the deployment, the Jewish state asked Egypt to withdraw its armor from northern Sinai.

“Security sources” told the paper that this is a moment in which the relations between Egypt’s new regime and Israel are being tested. An Israeli source added that Egypt asked that the forces be deployed in Sinai until the end of the military operation against terrorists there, but that Israel does not know when the operation is scheduled to end.

Residents of El Arish in northern Sinai reported on August 9 that the Egyptian militaryhad sent reinforcements of “unprecedented” size into the peninsula, according to the Egyptian Al Ahram newspaper. The forces reportedly include 60 tanks on 30 tank-transporters, 12 armored personnel carriers, 15 additional armored vehicles, more than 20 armored jeeps and 10 Military Police jeeps.

There was also a report that no less than 400 ‘Fahd’ armored vehicles were sent into the Sinai.

Tags: Egypt -Israel ,Egyptian army ,Sinai terror

Terrorists’ Goal: World Jihad in Sinai

International terrorist groups are working with Egyptian jihad cells to turn Sinai into a major terror center.

IsraelNationalNews 

By Maayana Miskin

First Publish: 8/14/2012, 9:31 PM

‘Jihad’ terrorist

Israel news sphoto: Flash 90

International terrorist groups with roots in Libya, Sudan and Iraq are working to take over the Sinai Peninsula, according to a report from the Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center. Efforts to turn the region into a major launching point for attacks are being encouraged by Al-Qaeda head Ayman al-Zawahiri, it stated.

The report noted a recent attack near the border as evidence of terrorists’ attempts to take advantage of the anarchy and growing anger in Sinai.

Gaza terrorist groups are heavily involved, it noted. “Palestinian terrorist groups active in the Gaza strip are accessible to local Bedouin organizations in Sinai which affiliatethemselves with the global jihad, and have both financial and ideological motives.”

Hamas generally attempts to force international jihad terror groups, including “rebel” groups in Gaza, into following its relatively restrained approach to terrorism, the authors said. Hamas has occasionally declared ceasefires with Israel, apparently fearing a repeat of the Cast Lead counterterror operation of 2008-2009.

However, they continued, Hamas leaders are happy to see other groups carry out attacks with no “address” – that is, with no single known terrorist group behind them.

Such attacks have included rocket attacks, attacks on Israelis near the border, and weapons smuggling from Sinai to Israel.

“Hamas and other organizations are careful to hide this type of activity, and sometimes even to deny it, in order to avoid exposing themselves to an Israeli response,” they noted. In addition, the groups seek to avoid “complicating their relationships with Egypt, particularly in the era after the election of Mohammed Morsi as Egyptian president.”

Tags: Sinai Terrorism ,Sinai terror ,World Jihad ,Al Qaeda ,Hamas

Jihadist Tells Iran, Uprising in Jordan Can Help Crush Israel

An Islamic Jihad official tells Iran that a popular uprising in Jordan would break the last part of Israel‘s “security chain.”

 IsraelNationalNews

By Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu

First Publish: 8/12/2012, 3:35 PM

Soldiers patrol Jordanian border

Israel news photo: IDF spokesmen

An Islamic Jihad official told Iran that a popular uprising in Jordan would break the last part of Israel’s security chain.”

Abu Sharif stressed that the recent popular uprisings in the region have harmed the interests of Israel, according to the Iran’s controlled FarsNews Agency.

“These developments (popular uprisings) in the region are in theinterest of the regional nations and against the interests of the Zionist regime and have disturbed the power balance between the supporters and opponents of the Zionist regime,” Abu Sharif said.

He cited the Islamic Revolution in Iran in 1979 as the first of several events “inflicted great damage on Israel.” Abu Sharif continued, “The deterioration of relations between Turkey and Israel was the second blow at the regime and Mubarak’s fall in Egypt was another blow.

“If the regional changes reach Jordan, the Israeli regime will lose the last part of its security chain.”

Jordan and Egypt are Israel’s only neighbors with whom diplomatic relations have been established.

The 1979 treaty with Egypt has survived frigid relations in the latter part of Mubarak’s regime, and the Muslim Brotherhood victories in the Egyptian legislative and presidential elections have left the treaty in questionable terms. Egypt is not about to break it, if for no other reason than its economic value and because of political pressure from the United States, which is a major source of foreign aid to Cairo.

However, the terms of the treaty, particularly the extent of armed Egyptian soldiers in the terrorist-infested Sinai Peninsula, may be challenged by the new regime.

Relations with Jordan have been less noisy, but the majority of non-Jordanian Arabs, descendants from families who fled Israel in previous wars, have created a demographic and political time bomb for King Abdullah II.

To the north, Hizbullah controls southern Lebanon and Syria is engulfed n an all-out civil war. To the south, Israel faces Hamas terrorists in Gaza, and cells of Bedouin, Hamas and  Al Qaeda–linked terrorists in the Sinai.

The jihadists see an uprising in Jordan as leaving Israel surrounded by stated enemies with a common principle of annihilating Israel.

Tags: Arab Spring ,Jihad ,Jordan ,Iran