Secret Alliance: Israel Carries Out Airstrikes in Egypt, With Cairo’s O.K.
- 6 years ago
Secret Alliance: Israel Carries Out Airstrikes in Egypt, With Cairo’s O.K.
In a telephone interview, Senator Benjamin L. Cardin of Maryland, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, declined to discuss specifics of Israel’s military actions in Egypt,
but said Israel was not acting “out of goodness to a neighbor.”
“Israel does not want the bad stuff that is happening in the Egyptian Sinai to get into Israel,” he said, adding
that the Egyptian effort to hide Israel’s role from its citizens “is not a new phenomenon.”
Some American supporters of Israel complain that, given Egypt’s reliance on the Israeli military, Egyptian officials, diplomats
and state-controlled news media should stop publicly denouncing the Jewish state, especially in international forums like the United Nations.
On July 1, 2015, the militants briefly captured control of a North Sinai town, Sheikh Zuwaid,
and retreated only after Egyptian jets and helicopters struck the town, state news agencies said.
“You speak with Sisi and he talks about security cooperation with Israel, and you speak with Israelis and they talk about security cooperation with Egypt,
but then this duplicitous game continues,” said Representative Eliot L. Engel of New York, the ranking Democrat on the House Foreign Relations Committee.
“Every time anyone says anything about the nuclear program, they have to jokingly add ‘according to the foreign press.’ Israel’s main strategic interest in Egypt is stability,
and they believe that open disclosure would threaten that stability.”
Inside the American government, the strikes are widely known enough
that diplomats and intelligence officials have discussed them in closed briefings with lawmakers on Capitol Hill.
In a telephone interview, Senator Benjamin L. Cardin of Maryland, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, declined to discuss specifics of Israel’s military actions in Egypt,
but said Israel was not acting “out of goodness to a neighbor.”
“Israel does not want the bad stuff that is happening in the Egyptian Sinai to get into Israel,” he said, adding
that the Egyptian effort to hide Israel’s role from its citizens “is not a new phenomenon.”
Some American supporters of Israel complain that, given Egypt’s reliance on the Israeli military, Egyptian officials, diplomats
and state-controlled news media should stop publicly denouncing the Jewish state, especially in international forums like the United Nations.
On July 1, 2015, the militants briefly captured control of a North Sinai town, Sheikh Zuwaid,
and retreated only after Egyptian jets and helicopters struck the town, state news agencies said.
“You speak with Sisi and he talks about security cooperation with Israel, and you speak with Israelis and they talk about security cooperation with Egypt,
but then this duplicitous game continues,” said Representative Eliot L. Engel of New York, the ranking Democrat on the House Foreign Relations Committee.
“Every time anyone says anything about the nuclear program, they have to jokingly add ‘according to the foreign press.’ Israel’s main strategic interest in Egypt is stability,
and they believe that open disclosure would threaten that stability.”
Inside the American government, the strikes are widely known enough
that diplomats and intelligence officials have discussed them in closed briefings with lawmakers on Capitol Hill.