by Dore Gold
The latest American
crisis with Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood president, Muhammad Morsi, came
out into the open on January 14, 2013, when the New York Times published
a report on its front page that three years earlier he used blatantly
anti-Semitic motifs for describing "Zionists" as “...bloodsuckers who
attack the Palestinians, these warmongers, the descendants of apes and
pigs.” The interview was videotaped and distributed by MEMRI, which has
been documenting and translating from Arabic the statements of leaders
across the Middle East for many years.
To make matters worse
for Morsi, he was also filmed addressing a rally in 2010 in the Nile
Delta at which he declared: “We must never forget, brothers, to nurse
our children and our grandchildren on hatred for them: for Zionists, for
Jews.” This video clip was actually broadcast on Egyptian television.
Then the crisis over
Morsi's anti-Semitic statements seemed to only get worse in the
aftermath of a meeting he recently held with a delegation of seven U.S.
Senators, led by John McCain (Rep.--Arizona). According to Senator Chris
Coons (Dem.--Delaware), Morsi only dug deeper into the hole he created
for himself when he tried to explain the crisis that was unfolding by
using more anti-Semitic references: “Well, I think we all know that the
media in the United States has made a big deal of this and we know the
media of the United States is controlled by certain forces and they
don’t view me favorably.”
Senator Coons told
Foreign Policy after the meeting that the senators had no doubt that
Morsi was implying that the American media was under Jewish control.
Coons concluded: “I thought it was impossible to draw any other
conclusion.”
What has made the
revelations about Morsi's comments especially problematic was that
during January, the U.S. supplied four F-16 fighter aircraft to Egypt,
out of a total package for 20 such fighters that was originally signed
when President Mubarak was still in power. The U.S. will also be
supplying 200 Abrams tanks to Egypt.
As a consequence, when
Senator John Kerry appeared before Congress prior to the vote on his
confirmation as the next secretary of state, he was asked how the U.S.
could provide advanced arms to a country led by a president, like Morsi,
who had such values that were antithetical to everything for which the
U.S. stood. More practically, Senator Rand Paul (Rep.--Kentucky) asked
Kerry if the new U.S. warplanes would be a threat to Israel or even to
America.
For decades the U.S.
has developed means to preserve Israel's qualitative military edge, even
as Washington supplies advanced weapons to the Arab states. In the
latest sale to Egypt, a publication specializing in the U.S. defense
industry points out that at this point, Egypt will not receive the same
advanced air-to-air missiles that Israel deploys on its F-16s, thereby
assuring Israeli air superiority vis-a-vis the Egyptian Air Force.
Undoubtedly, there will
be U.S. officials who will argue that arms sales to Egypt will at least
keep the Egyptian armed forces friendly to Washington. In his first
major struggle with the Egyptian army, however, Morsi showed that he was
willing to challenge its general staff when he forced General Tantawi
to retire. Every senior Egyptian officer now knows that his advance up
the chain of command will be dependent on the approval of the Muslim
Brotherhood regime.
Some Egyptians are
reading into the completion of the F-16 sale a political signal from
Washington towards the Egyptian regime and its opposition. It is being
seen as a kind of vote of confidence in Morsi and his government.
Ambassador Hussein Haridi, a former assistant foreign minister, told the
Egyptian newspaper, al-Ahram, in mid-January that the sale indicated
that the level of support for Morsi and the Brotherhood was continuing,
despite the demonstrations against his regime that were already underway
in mid-December.
But there is a more
fundamental issue that needs to be addressed in this discussion about
advanced arms for Egypt. Morsi's statements point to the fact that he is
still strongly tied to the hard-line ideology of the Muslim Brotherhood
, which it must be remembered is a revolutionary movement that could
down the line put at risk important Arab allies of the U.S.
Indeed, during 2011,
Jordanian officials accused the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood of being
involved in growing street disturbances in Amman. In December 2012,
security forces in the UAE uncovered a Muslim Brotherhood plot to
overthrow its government. Egyptian nationals were arrested and
imprisoned. Cairo sent a high-level delegation, including Morsi's
intelligence chief, to Abu Dhabi to help reduce tensions with the UAE,
but they came back empty-handed. Both the UAE and the Saudi press have
been notably critical of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood in recent
months.
Indeed the Muslim
Brotherhood over the years has been seeking to overthrow existing Arab
regimes, replacing them with a unified Arab state. The Arab Spring has
provided new opportunities for the movement to realize its long-term
goals. Eventually, the ideology of the Muslim Brotherhood seeks the
re-establishment of the caliphate, whose global regime will cross
current state borders.
There is a history of
Egyptian adventurism towards neighboring states that could be rekindled
in the future if it were to have the backing of a strong Islamist
ideological orientation. Take for example the case of Saudi Arabia. In
the 19th century, during the rule of Muhmmad Ali, Egypt dispatched an
expeditionary force into the heart of the Arabian Peninsula, occupied
the capital of the first Saudi state, and sent its Emir to Istanbul for
execution. In 1962, when Egypt was led by President Nasser, it
intervened in the Yemen Civil War with tens of thousands of troops and
even used its air force to strike border towns in Saudi Arabia, which
was backing the opposite side.
Right now, Egypt has
too many troubles at home to follow this kind of aggressive political
agenda. Morsi just declared a state of emergency and a curfew in Suez,
Ismailia, and Port Said after escalating violence in those cities. But
in the long-term, if Egypt adopts the Muslim Brotherhood program in its
relations with the rest of the Middle East, then Israel will not be the
only state that should be concerned.
Arms transfers do not
change the balance of power overnight, especially if only a few aircraft
are involved. The present sale represents a qualitative upgrade for
Egypt, which until now has only received older models of the F-16.
However, it would be more advisable to build up Egypt's ability to
assure its internal security in places like Sinai, where al-Qaeda
affiliates have built up for themselves a substantial foothold.
But investing in
weapons for projecting Egyptian military power over long distances
should be re-thought until its leadership clarifies what its intentions
are with respect to its Middle Eastern neighbors.
Dore Gold
Source: http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_opinion.php?id=3363
Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.
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