An Israeli tailwind to Egypt's war on terror: In the wake of the meeting in Cairo between Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi and Prime Minister Naftali Bennett in September, Israel Hayom reported Bennett's intention, following recommendations from top Israeli defense officials, to allow Egypt to increase the presence of its armed forces in the demilitarized northern Sinai Peninsula and along the Gaza frontier.
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Israel's aim is to help Egyptian security forces contend with Islamic State and other jihadist groups plaguing Egyptian soldiers and police in the peninsula.
This is not the first time Israel has accommodated an Egyptian request to waive the clause in the countries' 1979 peace treaty that stipulates that the Sinai must be demilitarized. However, while past exemptions consisted of relatively small forces for limited periods, this time, according to senior Egyptian sources, a large contingent of heavily armed Egyptian forces – similar to the scope on the eve of the Yom Kippur War – will be allowed to enter the Sinai.
Ever since el-Sissi seized power in Egypt in 2014, after carrying out a second coup in four years in the country and ousting former president Mohammed Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood regime, the Egyptian leader has managed to contend with numerous challenges that have threatened his country's stability and national security and economy.
El-Sissi has stabilized the Egyptian economy and financial systems, which had completely collapsed in the wake of the Arab Spring uprising. This stabilization has even rejuvenated the country's tourism industry, which had also been ravaged, bringing back the tens of millions of tourists who visited the country prior to the global coronavirus pandemic.
He also overcame the energy crisis that afflicted Egypt, and was even the first who dared for the first time in 30 years to raise the fuel, flour, cigarette and alcohol prices by tens of percent despite the public outcry. He repositioned Egypt as a regional power with influence while bolstering diplomatic and security ties with Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Jordan, and of course, Israel. El-Sissi takes every opportunity to stress the importance of the peace deal and preserving it.
However, despite the notable achievements domestically, diplomatically, economically and in terms of security, el-Sissi and the Egyptian defense establishment have suffered stinging failures in recent years in their efforts to eradicate the radical Islamist terrorist groups operating mainly in the northern Sinai, and the rise of the Islamic State group's Sinai branch.
Time and again, these groups have hit the Egyptian military and police forces stationed in the Sinai, embarrassing Egypt's preventative intelligence service and defense establishment, which have been helpless in stopping the Islamists from growing stronger and acquiring more weapons.
El-Sissi – who was defense minister when he ousted the same Morsi who had previously appointed him to the position – understood from the outset the importance of annihilating ISIS and other jihadist groups in the Sinai. For these groups, attacking Egyptian soldiers and police in the Sinai wasn't enough – they also murdered hundreds of civilians and wounded thousands more in strings of horrific attacks in Cairo and other cities across the country.
The fact that Israel was more than happy to allow a large and heavily armed Egyptian force to deploy to Rafah, adjacent to the Israeli border, is a testament to the vastly improved relations between the countries. However, we mustn't forget that two coups have occurred in Egypt in the past decade alone.
Morsi sought to arm the Muslim Brotherhood militias in Egypt and the Sinai, and even Hamas and other terrorist groups at the expense of the Egyptian army, severely damaging his country's national security interests.
Egypt is not just another country in the Middle East and maintaining good ties with it is paramount to Israel's national security interests. Israel's political and military leaders, however, who have agreed to allow the Egyptian army near our border, should bear in mind that in the Middle East jungle anything can happen and no one knows what tomorrow will bring.
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