Egypt on border smuggling: Blame the Israel Lobby

The IDF has videotape of Egyptian border guards either turning a blind eye to the smuggling between Egypt and Gaza, or actively aiding and abetting it. The tape has been given to members of the Pentagon. It was not supplied to Congress. Based on the tapes and other reports of Egyptians aiding weapons and explosives smuggling into Gaza, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni told the Knesset that Egypt was doing a “terrible” job on the Philadelphi corridor. (Those of us who follow such events are not surprised. We predicted this.)

“The need to dramatically decrease the amount of arms that are being smuggled into Gaza is an Israeli strategic goal, and of course this affects our relations with Egypt,” she told the committee.

“The Egyptians played a positive role at the Annapolis Conference, but that does not contradict the fact that what they are doing at Philadelphi is deplorable and problematic,” Livni told the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee.

So what do the Egyptians do? Well, first they tell Livni to sit down and shut up, and go back to her knitting or something.

Egypt on Tuesday strongly rejected criticism by Israel’s top diplomat that Cairo is doing a “terrible” job of securing its porous border with the Gaza Strip against smugglers, saying Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni did not understand the issues and should have remained silent.

[..] Livni infuriated Egyptian officials on Monday by accusing Egypt of doing a ”terrible” job in securing the border, saying this stands in the way of Israel’s negotiations with the Palestinians because it strengthens extremists in Gaza.

”It is better for the Israeli minister to concentrate on negotiation efforts with the Palestinians, instead of speaking randomly about issues she should not be dealing with if she is not fully aware of the situation,” a statement from the ministry here said.

Why would the Egyptians allow smuggling into Gaza? There are many reasons. Money, for one. Bribes have to be sky-high with this much cash flowing both ways.

The defense official went on to say that if Egypt wanted to take control of the smuggling into Gaza it would have done so by now. The remark came despite a Post report on Tuesday that Cairo had bought advanced tunnel detection systems.

He claimed there were some one hundred tunnels, allowing for a tremendous amount of weapons and other goods to be moved from the Egyptian side of Rafah Crossing to the Palestinian side.

The official added that the tunnels had turned into a massive source of profit and a “real industry.” He explained that smugglers paid $3,000 a day to Hamas for the use of the tunnels and recounted how a month ago, the group closed one of the tunnels after smugglers refused to pay the fee.

There is also the fact that if the arms are being smuggled into Gaza to fight Israel, they’re not being smuggled into Egypt to arm their own terrorists.

And that’s just the beginning. Egypt then tried to blame Israel by saying agreements between the two nations forbid Egypt from having enough guards to adequately police the border. This does not, of course, answer the question of the videotape evidence of the guards that are on the border turning a blind eye to the smuggling. Or aiding it. Israel has no intention of allowing Egypt more armed guards on their border, having learned a lesson decades ago about what happens when too many armed Egyptians approach Israel. So Egypt tried another tack.

Now, Egypt is blaming “the Israel Lobby” for causing tensions between Egypt and the U.S. It doesn’t matter that they have been caught in the act. It’s all the fault of the Jews.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit on Wednesday accused the Israeli lobby of aggravating its relations with the United States by using the issue of smuggling across the Gaza border as an excuse to cut Washington’s military aid to Cairo.

[…] “The latest months have seen the Israeli lobby’s efforts to harm Egypt’s interests with the Congress,” Aboul Gheit told reporters, adding that since Hamas took control of Gaza in June, Israel has been trying to pressure Egypt.

And here’s the part that always makes the top of my head blow off. It’s perfectly fine, you see, for Egypt to criticize Israel.

Egypt criticized Israel’s renewed efforts to build settlements around Jerusalem, calling them damaging to the peace process, in talks between President Hosni Mubarak and Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak in the Egyptian resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh on Wednesday.

Mubarak echoed Palestinian demands that Israel cancel a project to build 307 homes in Har Homa neighborhood announced earlier this month, describing it as damaging to the peace talks, according to presidential spokesman Suleiman Awwad.

“This settlement activity will hijack the only outcome of the Annapolis conference, which was the re-launching of peace negotiations,” he told reporters following the meeting.

Got that? Israeli “settlement activity” is what is preventing peace. And Egypt gets to have a say in that, because Egypt wants to have peace in the region, as they tell us over and over again. But when it comes to Israel objecting to the tons of weapons being smuggled into Gaza, aided and abetted by Egypt’s crappy border guards? That’s when Egypt says to Israel: MYOB.

“We will not allow a third party to interfere in the Egyptian-American relations which is bilateral and includes one regional power and one international power that try to discuss all issues openly and in cooperation,” he said.

Egypt on Tuesday strongly rejected criticism by Israel’s Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni that Cairo was doing a terrible job of securing its porous border with the Gaza Strip against smugglers. Egyptian Foreign Ministry statement said Livni did not understand the issues and should have remained silent.

So you see, it’s perfectly fine for a third party to interfer with Israeli building activity, but it’s not okay for Israel to object that Egypt is in breach of the agreement signed during the withdrawal of Gaza. Nor is it the only breach of the Egypt-Israel agreement.

On Monday, for the first time since Hamas’s violent takeover of Gaza in June, Egypt unilaterally opened the Rafah border terminal and allowed 700 Palestinians, who claimed to be religious pilgrims on their way to Mecca, to pass through. On Tuesday, another 1,000 crossed through the terminal.

“This is a clear breach of agreements we have made with the Egyptians,” a senior diplomatic official said Wednesday, in reference to the November 2005 agreement under which the Rafah Crossing was opened. The official said the unilateral opening of the border had been preceded by another breach of agreements in October, when Egypt allowed 85 Hamas operatives to cross back into Gaza after cutting a hole in the border fence.

Egypt is failing on many counts to keep its word regarding policing the Gaza Strip border. And when Israel has the gall to ask Egypt to actually stick to the agreement, Egypt tries to cloud the issue by jumping on the Walt-Mearsheimer bandwagon and blaming “the Israel Lobby.”

And the Israel Lobby as scapegoat for the world’s ills continues its way down the slope. The pebble is not a pebble any longer. It’s definitely a rock. This was the title of the AP article on the subject:

Egypt: Israeli Lobby Harms US Relations

And this:

Egypt criticizes pro-Israeli lobby ahead of Mubarak-Barak meeting

The story is all over the wires now, complete with the Israel Lobby smear. Thanks, Walt. Thanks, Mearsheimer.

Yeah, I saw this coming, too.