Israel is worried that a new US arms deal with Egypt could significantly improve the Egyptian army's abilities to use advanced technologies, according to an online report by the Tel Aviv-based Haaretz daily.
Part of the deal, which includes advanced weapons systems, was blocked by Israeli supporters in Congress even before the September 11 attacks on the United States, the paper quoted Israeli sources as saying.
The sources say that the US administration will step up efforts to sell arms to Arab states in exchange for support for an international coalition against terrorism. It will therefore be difficult for Israel to oppose the deal with Cairo.
In late August, the administration told Congress it planned to supply Egypt with 26 rocket artillery systems similar to those adopted by the Israeli army a few years ago. The rockets will substantially increase the firepower of Egypt's land forces. Without any opposition in Congress, the sale was automatically approved.
Israel has a history of worries over Egypt’s accumulating arsenal.
Decades of overwhelming military superiority in the Middle East have made Israel wary of upstarts, and recent US refusals to share information on its arms sales to Egypt have set off alarm bells at the regional superpower.
Israel enjoys "nuclear capabilities, perceived chemical warfare capabilities...and domestic production of home-grown, hi-tech military developments," according to Tony Banks, the former political editor for Jane's Defence Weekly.
Despite these advantages, Israeli defense officials are asking why the US refuses to share with Israel information about the arms it is supplying to Egypt. For now, military intelligence labels Egypt a danger, but not a threat, according to a previous report by Haaretz.
The paper said that a dispute-ridden debate about Egypt's real intentions toward Israel was currently preoccupying Israel's intelligence community.
Rightists attribute hawkish motives to Egypt, said Haaretz.
One minister went so far as to call Egypt an “enemy state," amid reports on an Egypt missile program in the Western and Israeli media, and Egyptian military exercises in the Sinai Peninsula.
According to a report by the Federation of American Scientists, arms will be the price of any future peace deals involving Israel: when an agreement with Syria was under discussion, Israel floated a $17 billion wish list before the US.
The director of Middle East studies at the US Army War College told the US press at the time that if these software codes, cruise missiles, advanced surveillance systems, and smart bombs were provided to Israel in exchange for a deal with Syria, “You trigger an arms race unwittingly. You cannot expect to arm to the teeth one nation in the region and expect all others to accept it willingly.”
Nevertheless, successive Israeli prime ministers Benjamin Netanyahu, Ehud Barak and Ariel Sharon each individually argued to the United States that the sales of arms to Egypt posed a danger to Israel.
The right-leaning Ariel Center for Policy Research (ACPR) represents the view that attributes belligerent intentions to Egypt.
In an analysis quoted by Haaretz, Major Shawn Pine, a US Army reserves specialist in counterintelligence claims that that Egypt is involved in deceiving, if not outright lying, to the world about its annual defense budget.
According to the US Central Intelligence Agency, Egypt spends $2.7 billion annually on defense (about 8.2 percent of its annual budget).
Pine claims that Egypt's real defense expenditures are closer to $20 billion, or seven times greater than what Israel and the United States have been led to believe.
President Mubarak warned in an interview with Israel’s Channel 2 TV earlier this year that spreading rumors and stepping up the rhetoric against his country, including threats to attack Egypt by right-wing Israeli officials, would lead only to more anti-Israeli sentiments among his people.
Egypt, which has reiterated that it will respect its 1979 peace treaty with Israel, still refuses to send a new ambassador to Tel Aviv since withdrawing Mohammad Bassiouni in October in protest of “Israel’s excessive use of force” to quell the latest Palestinian uprising against 34 years of Israeli military occupation – Albawaba.com
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
