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Al-Ahram Weekly 25 - 31 March 1999 Issue No. 422 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 25 - 31 March 1999 Issue No. 422
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Focus Profile Features Travel Living Sports People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters An ill wind that bodes no good
By Ibrahim Nafie
"Why is Egypt arming itself?" is the title of an article by Yeshua Porat that appeared in Ma'arev on 17 March. Pondering Egypt's motives in concluding the recent arms deal with Washington, he surmises that Egypt is preparing for war against Israel. He then urges the Israeli government to respond quickly by rallying its friends in Congress to stop the deal because it poses a threat to "Israeli military superiority".
Before discussing Porat's spurious allegations, I would first like to draw attention to his loaded rhetoric, which I find deliberately insulting. Egypt, he says, has no justifiable reason to modernise its army. Certainly, it would not need to upgrade its military forces if it plans to use them against Libya, which "Egypt can beat with two regiments and a musical band". Also, "Egypt" in his article is always associated with the word "poor". Apart from the insidious implications he intends, one might suggest that the Israeli author check his facts before making insulting racist remarks.
Porat's claims, however, are quite consistent with the ongoing attacks being waged against Egypt in the right-wing Israeli press. One of the striking features of this campaign is its very persistence and disregard for reality. One extremist paper, for example, has taken its hyperbole so far as to print banner headlines screaming "Egypt is mobilising for war!" and to predict that Egypt will attack Israel in 2000. It is not unusual for writers for the so-called "independent" newspapers, such as Ma'arev, to jump on the bandwagon of the right-wing press's attacks against Egypt. Porat, in his recent piece, is certainly one of those trigger-happy hacks who display knee-jerk racism at the drop of a hat. The Israeli government, he wrote, was like an ostrich sticking its head in the sand so as to remain oblivious to the dangers of Egyptian spending on the upgrading of the armed forces.
Porat's article, and the plethora of others like it, clearly betrays the intensity of the dilemma of the Israeli right, forever ensconced in that ghetto mentality which barricades itself behind an enormous arsenal and still cannot feel secure. Israel possesses the full gamut of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons and is constantly upgrading this arsenal of weapons of mass destruction -- with wholehearted and enthusiastic American backing. It continues to stockpile the most advanced US military technology; Washington is working with Israel to produce new assault and defence weaponry, in keeping with the US pledge to guarantee Israel's qualitative and quantitative military superiority over the Arab world.
What, then, has compelled this Israeli writer to rant and rave about the American arms deal with Egypt? What has occurred to drive him to the outer fringes of hysteria, to the point of describing his own country -- which has turned into an enormous armaments warehouse -- as an ostrich with its head in the sand?
The American arms deal with Egypt, concluded during the visit of the US Secretary of Defence to Egypt at the beginning of March, comprised 24 F-16 fighters, 200 M1-A1 tanks and eight Patriot missile units. Yet the US has furnished and continues to furnish Israel with F-15s, the most advanced multi-task fighter-bombers in the world, never used by the armies of the region. The M1-A1 tank is not new to the Egyptian army. Egypt already possess 400 of them, produced locally in cooperation with the US. It is also commonly known that Israel has had the Patriot Missile for nine years and that it is currently in the process of working on the Arrow missile programme, intended to produce more advanced missiles than the Patriot.
In response to the insidious stench that blows from the north-east from time to time, we can only urge the Israeli leadership to let go of the hallucinations born of the ghetto mentality, and to see realities as they are. Frantic appeals to Western capitals to rescue Israel no longer fool world leaders. The altercations between European capitals and Israel over the question of occupied Jerusalem and the American reservations concerning the attitude and behaviour of the Israeli right are indications that the world has already discovered how hollow Israeli rhetoric rings.
I hope that Porat, along with the Israeli leaders who think like him, will recover quickly from the delirium that has them panicking about an Egyptian arms build-up even though Egypt is bound by a peace agreement with Israel. Perhaps the best advice I can offer is to suggest that they consult scholarly and scientific works on military history before making any more absurd insinuations.
On the other hand, if the aim of Porat's article was to pressure the US Congress not to ratify the arms deal with Egypt, I am certain that it will meet with a rational response in Washington. The US government, represented by both the administration and Congress, is fully aware of the nature of the situation in the Middle East. It knows how important it is to maintain strong relations with Egypt, and it also knows the precise source of all the problems and disturbances that are constantly threatening to jeopardise the stability of the region.
To conclude, I can only tell Porat and his ilk that security is a question of perception. Peace of mind can only emanate from the provisions of a just and comprehensive peace. Such a sense of security can never be reached by those who choose to cower behind an arsenal of weapons, no matter how powerful, and who continue to refuse to abide by their pledges and treaties while casting groundless aspersions against others.
