Why is Egypt facilitating the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza? Dina Ezzat examines the official line A high-level Egyptian intelligence and security delegation -- headed by the number two intelligence officer in Egypt, Mustafa El-Behiri -- arrived in Gaza earlier this week to provide assistance to the Palestinian Authority (PA) as it readies itself to command Gaza after Israel's withdrawal. The Egyptian delegation first held extensive talks with top Palestinian security officials; later holding similar talks with Israeli officials. The number one priority for the mission is that the withdrawal be completed "safely". According to Palestinian diplomatic sources, the PA is counting on Cairo to throw its weight behind exercising maximum pressure on militant Palestinian resistance factions, especially Hamas and Islamic Jihad, to make sure they neither prompt nor respond to military confrontations with the Israelis. The Cairo agreements that Egypt sponsored last February between the PA and the Palestinian Islamist resistance factions have often been stymied because of Israeli provocations that called for a reaction from Hamas and Jihad. Today, the PA is very concerned that any Palestinian reaction to possible Israeli provocations could derail the whole disengagement process. "Our brothers in Hamas need to exercise maximum self-restraint. We know that the Israelis -- the army or the settlers -- might try to provoke military confrontation but we have to deny them the chance. We hope that our brothers in Egypt will help us with this important mission," said one Cairo-based Palestinian diplomat. According to this diplomat and to Egyptian sources, the Egyptian security delegation seems to be "on top of things". "Nobody is excluding an unpredictable confrontation but we have worked very hard to minimise the chances of such incidents," said one Egyptian source. The assignment of the Egyptian delegation in Gaza is expected to last until the disengagement is complete and the situation settles on the ground. According to Egyptian and Palestinian sources, Egyptian Intelligence Chief Omar Suliman is himself considering recurrent visits to Gaza during the disengagement period, to talk personally to top Hamas and Jihad figures and also to communicate due messages to the PA and the Israeli government. This is not the first such mission by Cairo in relation to the Israeli disengagement from Gaza, nor will it be the last. From the first, soon after Sharon indicated his intention to pull out from Gaza, Cairo has been supportive of the plan and encouraged the Palestinians to consider it positively. Many top Palestinian and Israeli officials alike have accredited the valuable contribution of Suliman in highlighting the details that both sides need to discuss in the run-up to the withdrawal. Further, Cairo has agreed with both Tel Aviv and Washington that it will deploy some 750 (perhaps up to 1,000) borders police on -- maybe onto -- the Philadelphi corridor separating Egypt's Sinai Peninsula from Gaza. The detail is still to be finalised but something alike is in the offing. This is no small effort. The officially declared mission of these troops would be to secure the border on both sides, making sure in particular that arms are not smuggled either way -- especially not from Egypt into Gaza, destined for Islamist militant groups. However, insiders know full well that these troops would also have to help the PA police in checking militant action in Gaza. "This is very important. The PA cannot accept to be perceived as having failed to control the territories off of which Israel withdrew. If we headed that way, [Israeli Prime Minister Ariel] Sharon would tell the world that he cannot give up Palestinian territories for fear of terrorism," said a Palestinian official. "We have to deny him this pretext," he added. Given that Egypt fears that Gaza would end up being "first and last", it finds it in its own national interest -- aside from any friendships it may have forged with the PA -- to support Palestinian police in controlling Gaza. This is a task that Egypt accepts even when it knows that it might entail scenarios where Egyptian border police might have to exchange information with Israeli security officials, or even -- and this they say is the worst case scenario -- confront members of the Palestinian resistance factions. However, Egypt believes it has no choice but to run this risk. "If Gaza first ended up to be as Gaza first and last -- and we know that this is what Sharon really wants -- then Gaza will turn into a time bomb on our borders and when it explodes it will explode in our face," commented one Egyptian official. Egypt has other worries that merited its decision to aggressively intervene in the Gaza withdrawal dossier. Egypt is concerned that the inefficiency of the still improperly trained Palestinian police could allow Islamist militants to pass through Egyptian territories and carry out operations against Egyptian, American and Israeli targets. "This is not something that we can tolerate," the official stressed. Also, by facilitating a withdrawal that has received support from the US, Cairo believes that it stands to score points with Washington. "When we cooperate with the Americans as allies, which we are doing with the withdrawal dossier, we expect the Americans to do the same," said an Egyptian diplomat. Cairo is hoping to sign a free trade agreement with the US -- a demand that Washington thus far has been reluctant to meet. Moreover, by deploying its border police troops on the borders with Gaza, Egypt would improve its presence in this area that has been qualified by the Camp David Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty as Zone C, where only very humble armed Egyptian troops are allowed to station. Egyptian officials and commentators agree that Egypt's involvement in the Gaza disengagement preparations has lifted the profile of Egyptian intervention in settling the Palestinian-Israeli conflict -- a profile that had subsided recently. This, they say, is important for Egypt's regional role, which Cairo is trying to enhance.
