Egypt exerted itself to maintain the Arab boycott and Israel's international isolation. Although Egypt undertook in its treaty with Israel to end all economic boycotts, the government enforced the Arab boycott within Egypt. In 1989, the then-Soviet ambassador to Egypt reported his surprise on being summoned by the Egyptian Foreign Minister, who protested a proposed Soviet thawing of relations with Israel. When he observed that Egypt had diplomatic relations with Israel, he was told that Egypt had no choice but the Soviets did. Egypt repeatedly urged African nations not to resume relations with Israel. And when, during the first Bush administration, the United States led the effort to rescind the UN's Zionism-equals-racism resolution, Egypt headed the unsuccessful campaign to keep the resolution intact. True to form, at the UN anti-racism conference in Durban in 2002, Egypt led the (largely successful) effort to turn the conference into an assault on Israel.

Carolyn Glick, writing in the Jerusalem Post ("Not a Cold Peace -- a Cold War," August 17, 2001) notes that the open hostility of all strata of Egyptian society is best encapsulated by the treatment of Israeli diplomats in Cairo. She quotes Alon Liel, Director General of Israel's Foreign Ministry in the Barak government: "The lives of our diplomats in Cairo are hellish. They are physically threatened and humiliated socially and professionally. If you are an Israeli diplomat, no one wants to see you, to meet with you and the press crucifies you everyday. There are almost no professionals or tradesmen whose services an Israeli diplomat may seek out, who will agree to help him....For instance, if one of our diplomats needs to see a doctor we have to send one out from Israel. Egyptian doctors refuse to treat embassy personnel."

Egypt's armed forces have been upgraded and modernized with American aid. Egypt now has the thirteenth largest armed force in the world. With a regular army of 450,000 soldiers, the Egyptian army is larger than the combined NATO forces. The Egyptian air force, soon to include more than 215 F-16 jets, is the fourth largest such fleet in the world. In addition to all the American military equipment, Egypt has obtained from North Korea the intermediate-range No-Dong missiles.

There can be no doubt that Israel is the intended target of all of this. Indeed, as early as 1988, when the treaty with Israel was only a decade old, Egypt's Defense Minister General Abu Ghazzala told the Defense and National Security Committee of the Egyptian People's Assembly that Israel was Egypt's "principal and sole enemy" and together with Syria, Egypt could achieve a "crushing" victory over the Jewish state (Near East Report, September 11, 1989). As Aaron Lerner of IMRA (Independent Media Review and Analysis) notes, it is ironic that Sharon alluded to the treaty with Egypt as a model during the very week when Egypt concluded "A'asar-2002", a major land, sea and air military exercise in which it moved massive forces into the Sinai and destroyed mock enemy fortifications. It was the second such exercise in the Sinai in the last three months. A third took place at the beginning of November.

Egypt participates in terror activities directed against Israel. Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff General Moshe Yaalon reported a recent incident where the IDF exploded a tunnel for smuggling weapons, ammunition and terrorists from the Sinai into Palestinian Authority-controlled Rafah and the smoke from the explosion could be seen rising from an Egyptian army position on the Egyptian side of the border!

If one of our diplomats needs to see a doctor we have to send one out from Israel. Egyptian doctors refuse to treat embassy personnel.

The notorious anti-Semitic forgery The Protocols of the Elders of Zion (it was concocted by the Russian Czar's secret police at the turn of the 19th century) has long been a staple of Egyptian propaganda, available in bookstores, serialized in newspapers. No less an authority than President Gamal abdel Nasser publicly vouched for their authenticity. Now Egyptian state television will be broadcasting a 30 part series based on the Protocols during Ramadan. The plot of the series centers on a journalist, played by well known Egyptian actor Mohammed Sobhi (who has close relations with Saddam Hussein and is a vocal supporter of Hezbollah).The journalist tries to find out if the protocols are "true." In an interview with the Egyptian weekly Roz Al-Yusuf, Sobhi told the magazine: "By means of the series I am exposing all the Protocols of the Elders of Zion that have been implemented." In the face of criticism abroad Egypt's Information Minister Safwat el-Sherif convened a special committee to review the script, which was held not to be anti-Semitic.

Such are the poison fruits of the Egyptian-Israel peace treaty for which Carter is honored and which Ariel Sharon cites as a model for future agreements with the Arabs. Israel obtained nothing for the vital assets it sacrificed. There has been no war with Egypt, but neither has there been war with Syria -- without a treaty. The treaty was a catastrophe, paving the way for the massive rearming of Egypt by the U.S. and bringing closer the day when Arab armies, with Egypt, as in 1967, at their head, once more attempt to annihilate Israel.  

Rael Jean Isaac is editor of Outpost.

November 2002               - 11 -               Outpost