Concerned Israel quietly backs Egypt’s military

[Edevelop]

* Israeli official says only Egyptian army can restore stability

* Islamist attacks in Sinai a big concern for Israel

JERUSALEM: Israel is urging the West to stick by Egypt’s army in its confrontation with the Muslim Brotherhood, quietly echoing warnings by US regional ally Saudi Arabia against putting pressure on the military-backed government.

“Israel shares its views with the US and some EU (European Union) countries, and those views are to give priority to restoring stability,” a senior Israeli official said on Monday. “And like it or not, the army is the only player that can restore law and order (in Egypt).”

With Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet instructed by him to avoid public comment about turmoil in Egypt, where about 850 people, including 70 police and soldiers, have been killed in nearly a week of violence, government officials have been speaking, anonymously, about Israel’s concerns. Among them is any sign of weakened support for an Egyptian military that maintained close security ties with Israel even during the year-long rule of President Mohamed Morsi, the Muslim Brotherhood leader deposed by the army on July 3 after huge protests against him. Responding to the mounting death toll on Egypt, the United States has postponed delivery of four F-16 fighters and scrapped a joint military exercise with the Egyptian armed forces, but has not withheld $1.55 billion in annual aid.

That decision, one Israeli official said, “raised eyebrows” in Israel, which signed a peace treaty with Egypt in 1979 that has been underpinned by a working relationship between the armed forces of both countries.

But other officials insisted there was no formal Israeli lobbying drive in Washington to dissuade President Barack Obama from taking any stronger measures to try to curb the Egyptian military crackdown. “When we speak (to US officials), we clearly say what we think. It doesn’t mean there is a campaign. We share our views and analysis,” one official said.

“With what other neighbour of Egypt can they speak about this? We are the only nation they can speak to what’s right on the border; obviously there’s a lot to exchange.” Israel, hoping to preserve its peace treaty with Egypt, was muted in its response to Morsi’s election as president a year ago after autocrat Hosni Mubarak’s ouster, Netanyahu was vocal in the past about his fears of an Islamist takeover in Egypt.

Such a scenario, he said in 2011, represented a “tremendous threat” to Egyptian-Israeli cooperation. Elsewhere in the region, Saudi Arabia has publicly cautioned the West against measures aimed at reining in the military in its efforts to curb the Muslim Brotherhood. “We will not achieve anything through threats,” Prince Saud al-Faisal, the Saudi foreign minister, told reporters in Paris on Sunday ahead of an EU foreign ministers’ meeting in Brussels to review the 28-nation bloc’s Egyptian policy.

Israel sees Egypt’s armed forces as critical in confronting Islamist fundamentalism on a national level and dealing with attacks by Islamist militants in the Sinai Peninsula, which has a long desert border with the Jewish state.

Deepening Israel’s worries about increasing lawlessness on its doorstep, suspected Islamist gunmen killed at least 24 Egyptian policemen in an ambush in Sinai on Monday. Just last week, Israel’s Red Sea resort of Eilat, on the border with Sinai, was targeted by a rocket apparently fired by Islamist militants. It was shot down by an Israeli missile shield. Tzachi Hanegbi, a legislator from Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud party and a confidant of the prime minister, said it was also in Washington’s strategic interest to maintain good relations with Egypt’s leaders.

“Every year, Egypt gets 1.5 billion dollars, mainly in military aid. The US military ... gets preferential treatment for passage in the Suez Canal and in Egyptian air space. All these things have greatly assisted the United States in its operations in the Middle East,” he told Army Radio on Sunday. reuters

 

[Edevelop]

Report: Israel urges West to back Egypt's military

Jerusalem launching campaign to urge Europe, United States to support military-backed government in Egypt, New York Times reports. 'What’s the alternative? it’s army or anarchy,' says Israeli official

Israel is planning to intensify its diplomatic campaign urging Europe and the United States to support the military-backed government in Egypt, a senior Israeli official involved in the effort told the New York Times Sunday.


According to the official, Israeli ambassadors in Washington, London, Paris, Berlin, Brussels and other capitals would lobby foreign ministers. At the same time, leaders here will press the case with diplomats from abroad that the military is the only hope to prevent further chaos in Cairo.

"We’re trying to talk to key actors, key countries, and share our view that you may not like what you see, but what’s the alternative?” the official explained. “If you insist on big principles, then you will miss the essential — the essential being putting Egypt back on track at whatever cost. First, save what you can, and then deal with democracy and freedom and so on.


“At this point,” the official added, “it’s army or anarchy.”

On Saturday, the New York Times quoted diplomatic sources as saying that Israel and Egyptian Defense Minister General Abdel Fatah al-Sisi have been in close contact.


These same diplomats say that Israel assured Egypt it did not have to worry about the US threat to cut its enormous aid package to that country.


The US is in no hurry to stop its aid to Egypt, which would severely damage its relations with the Egyptian army, the report said. The Egyptians allow the Americans to move their military forces, quickly and almost without warning, over Egyptian skies and the Suez Canal, which is a necessity for its activities in the war on terror in the Horn of Africa, the Persian Gulf, Afghanistan, and the area of Israel and the Gaza Strip.


On Sunday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the arms supply to Egypt may be compromised in the course of pressure on the interim leadership in Cairo to stop the violence in the country.


"Exporting arms to Egypt may be influenced by steps we may take. Soon the EU foreign ministers will meet to discuss the situation," Merkel announced in an interview for a German TV channel.

Also Saturday, the European Union said it was reexamining its relations with Egypt. France and Britain called for Europe to send a strong message on the escalating crisis in Egypt, urging the EU to review its relations with Cairo.


The French presidency said in a statement that after talks by telephone, President Francois Hollande and Prime Minister David Cameron agreed "on the seriousness of the violence of recent days and on the need for a strong European message."



On Sunday, 38 Muslim Brotherhood detainees were suffocated to death by tear gas fired at them as they tried to escape trucks that drove them to a detention facility. According to reports, the detainees held a security officer hostage. Security forces rescued him and said he sustained serious injuries.

Report: Israel urges West to back Egypt's military - Israel News, Ynetnews