Amid concerns in Israel over the building of Egyptian military forces in the Sinai Peninsula in apparent violation of the Camp David Accords, an Egyptian lawmaker this week threatened to invade Tel Aviv.
Egyptian forces would “be in Tel Aviv the following day” in the event of an outbreak of hostilities, warned Egyptian parliamentarian Mostafa Bakry in remarks to Arabic-language Russian media.
Bakry was responding to an article on the Israeli website Nziv.net that discussed a hypothetical military confrontation between Israel and Egypt, and suggested that Jerusalem could bring Cairo to its knees by striking the Aswan High Dam, which could flood large portions of the country.
Tensions are presently high between Israel and Egypt.
Last year, Cairo threatened to suspend diplomatic relations if the IDF invaded the Gaza border town of Rafah, which it did shortly after. The Rafah border had become Hamas’s primarily lifeline, as Egypt did little or nothing to prevent the smuggling of weapons and other equipment into the terrorist-ruled Gaza Strip.
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Camp David violation
“The presence of tanks near Israel’s border is a blatant violation of the peace agreement, which stipulates that most of Sinai should remain demilitarized,” noted Israeli analyst Lt. Col. (res.) Eliyahu Dekel. “There is indisputable satellite evidence that showed 100 tanks in El-Arish even before the war. These tanks are entirely prohibited in the area.”
Dekel added that Egypt has deployed to Sinai about four times the amount of forces permitted under the Camp David Accords.
Israeli Ambassador to the United States Yechiel Leiter called this violation “very serious” and vowed that the government in Jerusalem would table Cairo’s military buildup in Sinai “very soon.”
Egypt has constructed military bases in Sinai “that can only be used for offensive operations, for offensive weapons—that’s a clear violation,” Leiter said in his first meeting with American Jewish organizations on Jan. 28, a recording of which was shared online by the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations on Friday.
Egypt’s breach “is an issue that is going to come to the fore because it’s not tolerable,” the Israeli diplomatic envoy explained. “For a long time, it’s been shunted aside, and this continues. This is going to be an issue that we’re going to put on the table very soon and very emphatically.”
With reporting by JNS.
