ISRAEL has long complained of the state of turmoil in Sinai and the many tunnels under Egypt's borders with Gaza, via which both weapons and militants were easily moving between the two sides forming a threat to Israel. Accordingly, the Israeli leaders kept requesting the Egyptian authorities to inspect the borders with Gaza, while denying that the Israeli siege on the Gaza Strip was the direct cause of the creation of the tunnels, through which the Palestinians managed to get their basic needs of commodities for living. In addition, the stringent conditions imposed by the Peace Treaty between Egypt and Israel, which prevented Egypt from maintaining a strong military presence in the border region known as Zone C that caused this state of chaos in Sinai and weakened the state grip on most of the peninsula. However, when Egypt tried to restore order in Sinai following the murder of its border guards at the hands of some terrorist group, Israel raised its voice in opposition to moving heavy weapons and huge forces to Sinai on the grounds that this violated the 1979 Peace Treaty. Curiously, Israel was on the scene when those terrorists launched their criminal assaults on the border point in Rafah on August 5 killing some 16 Egyptian soldiers and injuring many others before the attackers stole an armoured vehicle. This took them across the frontier where they were halted by Israeli helicopter and tank fire. At the time, the Israeli leaders went to the site and were photographed beside the destroyed vehicle to affirm their tightened grip on the borders in the face of terrorism. In other words, Israel has let no chance go by to claim the threat the unrest of Sinai causes to its security. However, when Egypt finally decided to restore its strong security grip on Sinai, Israel raised its voice high in opposition against heavy military vehicles entering the whole of Sinai and not just Zones A and B. This was despite Egypt's intention to pursue the suspected terrorists who had carried out the evil operation at the Rafah border point and the many other terrorist groups that have turned Sinai into a nest of terrorism, as an Israeli official recently described it. "If Egypt fails to restore order in the Sinai Peninsula it could come to resemble the Afghan mountain hideouts which shelter the Taliban and their Al-Qaeda allies, an Israeli military source warned recently. "There are nests of terrorists there, big nests. Like in Afghanistan and elsewhere, they look for the absence of government, that way they can survive," he said to the press. "If the Egyptians don't take things in hand now, that's what they'll get; them and us." In other words, Israel is fully aware of the threat those terrorist groups could cause both Egypt and Israel as well as the necessity of using all means to restore order in the peninsula. They should be further aware that this entails a strong temporary presence of the army in Zone C or even amending the security appendix of the Peace Treaty to enhance troops in this Egyptian territory permanently. Israel does not have the right to exploit the present critical situation to accuse Egypt of violating the Peace Treaty when Egypt has continued to respect it for more than three decades in spite of many Israeli violations of it during this period. Under the pretext of combating terrorism, Israel launched a barbaric assault on Gaza in December 2008-January 2009. The deadly attack lasted for more than three weeks, during which the heavy bombardment of the densely populated cities of Gaza, Khan Yunis and Rafah penetrated Egypt and caused major harm to Egyptian houses and schools in the border region. It is also know that Israel has kept violating the treaty by its repeated encroachments into the border region causing the death of many Egyptian soldiers during and after the rule of Mubarak. We still remember its unjustified assault on the border guards in Sinai causing death of six soldiers during months of the revolution. This killing incident raised the anger of the Egyptians and provoked young people to besiege the Israeli Embassy in Cairo and forcibly remove its flag from the top of the building. So what Israel is up to with its opposition to the intensified military presence of the Egyptian army in Sinai formed to conduct Operation Eagle to uproot the terrorist groups from Sinai? Apparently, Israel does not fear the possible use of these weapons against its territories and is confident that Egypt will not even extend this campaign to the Gaza Strip, despite some terrorist Palestinian elements possibly being involved in the atrocity and many others perpetrated on Egyptian territory. However, it intended to utilise the occasion to create a crisis between Cairo and Tel Aviv, forcing President Morsi to meet the Israeli leaders so as to co-ordinate over this operation in Sinai, which the new president seems to have avoided doing since taking office at the beginning of July. However, this does not mean cutting ties or refrain from having any contact with Israel, since President Morsi as well as the Muslim Brotherhood's political party had previously declared their respect for the peace treaty and all other international pacts Egypt have with the world. Further, there are growing calls in Egypt urging President Morsi to seek amendment of the Peace Treaty, especially with the presence of an article that allows such kinds of amendments and revision of the treaty every 10 years. Now, more than three decades have passed and no amendment has been made to the treaty despite the many changes took place in the region that beg for some changes in its security articles. It seems unfair to prevent Egypt from ensuring strong military presence on its borders with Gaza and Israel and be satisfied with some security forces with light weapons, when Israel on its border zone has the right to have military forces with some land-air missiles as well as armoured vehicles. Ironically, this treaty came to end Israeli occupation of the Egyptian territory of Sinai and not Egyptian occupation of Israeli territory. So, why did its articles deprive Egypt from having its army on the border while Israel preserves these military forces on its border with Egypt?!
