6 - 12 December 2001
Issue No.563
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Al-Ahram Weekly Online 6 - 12 December 2001 Issue No.563 |
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Harpoon clamour
Despite objections by the pro-Israel lobby, the US administration is providing Egypt with surface-to-surface missiles in a $400 million deal. Amira Ibrahim reports
it to Cairo by the late Israeli Prime Minster Yitzhak Rabbin, a member of his accompanying delegation asked President Hosni Mubarak if Libya posed a military threat to Egypt. The president ignored the question. The Israeli official then asked if Sudan was a military threat to Egypt. The president responded this time by asking what the questions were for. The Israeli official answered, "Mr President, we do not have secrets. We have been watching the lists of weapons which the US administration has agreed to sell to Egypt. Who is Egypt planning to go to war against?"
Mubarak, getting the point, replied angrily. "No one can force us to explain Egypt's strategic concerns," he said.
In Israel, the sentiment behind the questions -- that Arab countries should be kept militarily weak -- seems to have caught on. A press campaign opposing the sale of US naval surface-to-surface missiles to Egypt has been launched by Israeli and US pressure groups.
According to the Washington Post, the sale involves 53 Harpoon Block II missiles as well as four naval patrol craft, which are used to mount the missiles. According to the newspaper, several US legislators were sceptical of the deal. "The deal is proving more troublesome than most. edge," he added.
A report by a South Korean newspaper -- which was later picked up by large sections of the Israeli and American press -- claimed that North Korea was providing Egypt with long-range land-to-land missiles capable of carrying unconventional warheads. President Mubarak denied the report.
The Jerusalem Post also questioned whether the US would downgrade the Harpoons' capability in some way. This is a tactic which the US employs from time to time to ensure its own -- and, at times, Israel's -- military advantage.
A source at the Egyptian defence ministry said that Egypt had asked the US for the Harpoon missiles some time ago as part of periodic requests for help in upgrading the capability of Egypt's armed forces.
The US position on requests for military aid is that it does not turn down requests based on the legitimate security concerns of friendly Middle Eastern states, but it always upholds its commitment to maintaining Israel's military superiority in the region.
The US administration recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Israel, aimed at restructuring US military assistance. The volume of military assistance that the US supplies to Israel was increased by one-third, to $2.4 billion annually over the next decade. The aid package has three components: the US will provide assistance to the Israeli military forces, including projects to be managed by the US Army Engineering Corps. Secondly, assistance will be provided to help meet Israel's broader strategic requirements -- including Theatre Missile Defence (TMD), helicopters and communications equipment and munitions. Thirdly, there will be assistance to meet the increased cost of Israeli counter-terrorism efforts.
In this context, the MOU states that the US will provide funding for Israel to acquire a Third Arrow battery, develop new technologies and systems designed to deal with ballistic missiles and establish a Strategic Policy Planning Group (SPPG) to develop measures to bolster Israel's defence and minimise costs and risks to enhance Israel's security.
There is a stark contrast between US military aid to Israel and that supplied to Egypt. Whereas military aid to Israel was increased by one third -- guaranteed directly in cash accounts -- Egypt receives its military aid under strict conditions regarding varieties, quantities and targeted military strategies.
In the words of one military strategy expert, "Only Israel bases its military plans on confronting all and every possible threat from all regional states, acting to acquire superiority over them. The Israelis succeeded in convincing the US administration that Iran and Syria are a threat because of their developing missile technology. Now they are trying to do the same with the new missile sale to Egypt." Egypt is not necessarily losing out this time, however. He added that "the US determination to go ahead with the sale reflects a conviction that strengthening Egypt's military abilities is important and necessary for the stability of the region."
With Arab-Israeli relations under strain and American Jewish groups accusing Egypt of insufficiently supporting the war on terrorism, some key lawmakers are reluctant to provide the country with sophisticated technology they say could blunt Israel's qualitative military edge," according to the newspaper.
A State Department official defended the sale, however, arguing that it enhanced Egypt's ability to protect the Suez Canal, an important transit point for American commercial and military ships.
"They have been a strategic partner with us," the official said. "The administration would not recommend selling a weapons system if they thought it would undermine Israeli security, and we don't think this one does."
Nabil Fahmi, Egypt's ambassador to Washington, told the Washington Post that the Harpoons will not be used against "anybody who does not attack us."
The Jerusalem Post commented that Israeli opposition to the deal was muted by a desire to avoid confrontation with Washington. The newspaper itself was highly critical of the sale, claiming that it will enable Egypt to attack the entire Israeli coast.
"We do not want an all-out campaign; it is not the right time," an Israeli official told the newspaper. "We are concerned about the deal, however, because it does erode Israel's qualitative
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