Army Story 4-20

Jerusalem Compassed with Armies

Clearly this single prophetic event will take place with great swiftness. We will post stories of any troop movements in the Middle East and any stories relating to increased military power among the nations.

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Egypt's Israel Peacekeeper Plan Draws Ire
By DONNA BRYSON--ASSOCIATED PRESS

CAIRO, Egypt (AP) - The first time an Egyptian president took the risk of reconciling with Israel, he was shunned by other Arabs and vilified by his own citizens.

A quarter-century after Anwar Sadat became the first Arab leader to sign a peace treaty with Israel, his successor Hosni Mubarak is contemplating yet another a risky step in the world of Middle East peacemaking: sending Egyptians to help keep the peace in the Gaza Strip if Israel withdraws as promised.

And as with the 1979 treaty, which ushered in a lasting if cool peace, Egypt finds itself accused of a variety of missteps. Either Mubarak is acting on behalf of hated Israel or out of his own selfishness. In the very least, detractors say, it is a dangerous misstep that will have unpredictable repercussions.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon plans a unilateral withdrawal from all of Gaza, now home to 7,500 Israeli settlers and 1.3 million Palestinians, and from four isolated West Bank enclaves. The pullout, which Sharon says will improve Israel's security, is not expected to happen for months - if it can overcome political and logistical hurdles at all.

Egypt controlled Gaza between the founding of Israel in 1948 and the time Israel captured the strip in 1967. It fears a volatile vacuum if Israel withdraws, one that might be filled by extremist Muslims among the Palestinians.

Egypt has offered to dispatch about 200 advisers to train Palestinian security forces, to send equipment and to build new police stations and jails in Gaza. Egypt also demands that Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat merge 12 security branches into three and yield some of his power.

"We offered training to the Palestinians to preserve peace and stop the continued acts of violence," Mubarak has said.

Mubarak's spokesman, Maged Abdel Fatah, told reporters Wednesday that continued Israeli attacks on Palestinians could make Egypt change its mind about sending advisers. He said people were getting the "wrong impression" that Egypt was complicit in Israeli attempts to end a Palestinian uprising.

Taking a measure of responsibility for security in Gaza could draw Egypt into Palestinian factional disputes. Or Egypt could wind up in the Palestinian-Israeli crossfire. Israel has rejected Egypt's demands that it rule out military strikes while the Egyptian security advisers are there.

While Egypt now proposes sending only 200 trainers, might it one day decide it needs to send more men with a broader role?

"No, no, no, no, no, absolutely not," said Mohammed Bassiouni, who served as Egypt's ambassador to Israel for years and now is a member of Egypt's upper house of parliament. "Egypt will not send one soldier to have a security role on the ground. The Palestinians will do the job. We will only train them."

Egyptian officials say they envision Israel's Gaza withdrawal as a first step to a larger settlement as laid out in the so-called "road map" peace plan, which calls for an independent Palestinian state by next year.

While welcoming Egypt's efforts to work out Gaza security arrangements, Sharon says he will not let the Egyptians push him into new negotiations with the Palestinians.

Bassiouni said as Egypt is prodding the Palestinians, it is counting on the United States and other members of the so-called Quartet - the United Nations, the European Union and Russia - to push Israel toward a deal.

"We are asking the Quartet to implement the road map," Bassiouni said. "We are asking the two sides to implement their obligations. Everybody should implement their obligations."

At first, Arafat indicated he would work with the Egyptians, but later showed signs of balking. He has long resisted any change to his security apparatus or his powers.

Ten radical Palestinian factions, meanwhile, have said they won't let up their own campaign against Israel. They declared any Israeli withdrawal "should be unconditional and without any commitments or guarantees for the enemy's security. Therefore, the resistance shall continue until the occupation ends."

Some Palestinians have claimed Egypt doesn't just want to help them secure Gaza, but may be trying to regain control of the strip.

Mohamed Ibrahim Shaker, vice chairman of the Egyptian Council on Foreign Relations and a veteran Egyptian diplomat, said it is in Egypt's "strategic interest" that its borders be stable and secure. Its motives are no more selfish than that, he said.

But why, some skeptics ask, would Egypt take such a risky move? News of Israeli-Palestinian clashes can send Egyptians into the streets to protest and call for their leaders to tear up the Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty. The public mood led Egypt to withdraw its ambassador from Tel Aviv in late 2000. The ambassador has yet to return

"What exactly is going on?" Abdallah El-Senawi, editor of the Egyptian opposition weekly Al-Arabi, wrote as details of Egypt's plans for Gaza began to emerge. "We need a clarification from the presidency about the motives behind the rewarming of Israeli-Egyptian relations."

Shaker, of the Egyptian Council on Foreign Relations, said if Egyptian leaders are able to help the Palestinians in Gaza and the venture helps open the way to a Palestinian state, it will show their citizens that negotiating with Israel - rather than fighting it - can benefit Arabs.

"Gaza could be a turning point," he said.

Source

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