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Commentary of the Week: Deal with Egypt a fig leaf for retreat

 By Dr. Aaron Lerner, World Jewish News Agency International Commentator and IMRA Director, Israel.                

September, 1,  2005

This week the Knesset was treated to a typical Oslo era document when it considered the "Agreed Arrangements Regarding The Deployment of a Designated Force of Border Guards Along The Border in the Rafah Area" All the t's are crossed and all the i's are dotted but the underlying logic for the need for the arrangement in the first place was missing altogether.

A quick review: Egypt is obligated to prevent the smuggling of weapons across Sinai into Gaza that could be used against Israel per the Peace Treaty Between Israel And Egypt signed on March 26, 1979:

"...Article III 2. Each Party undertakes to ensure that acts or threats of  belligerency, hostility, or violence do not originate from and are not committed from within its territory.

What was preventing Egypt from stopping the smuggling? The explanation typically palmed off by Israeli officials was that the treaty between Israel and Egypt prevented the Egyptians from deploying enough forces. This was usually a sufficient answer - since Israeli reporters and politicians alike rarely actually make the effort to read documents.

Here's what the Treaty says: Annex I, Article II, Subparagraph 1.c.2. "Egyptian civil police will be stationed in Zone C" (the area adjacent to the border). Subparagraph 1.c.3.states that they will be "armed with light weapons". Assault rifles qualify as "light weapons".


What does the Government of Israel think this means? Amira Oron, an Israel Foreign Ministry spokesperson, confirmed to IMRA on 19 May 2004 that the Treaty Between Israel and Egypt sets no limit on the number of Egyptian police armed with assault rifles that Egypt can deploy in the border area adjacent to the Gaza Strip and that no limits were introduced after the Treaty was signed.

So what was preventing Egypt from stopping the smuggling? Apologists argued that the poor training and lower quality of Egyptian civil  police was the source of the problem, hence the idea of replacing them with a military force barred from the demilitarized area near the border. But just as Annex I, Article II, Subparagraph 1.c.2 of the Treaty did not put a numerical limit on the "Egyptian civil police" deployed in the area, it placed no restriction on who could serve in the "Egyptian civil police" nor the terms of service in the "Egyptian civil police." Egypt needs better people in the "Egyptian civil police" deployed to fight the smugglers?  Fine. Let them recruit them from the ranks of their most elite army units - but they should operate as "Egyptian civil police" - not a force linked by command and control to forces barred by the Treaty from the area. This agreement isn't really to stop smuggling - Egypt was already obligated to do it and had the means to honor its obligations.  This agreement is instead a fig leaf for Israeli retreat.

And a fast retreat at that.

Back on July 5, Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz told a special joint session of the Knesset Constitution, Law, and Justice Committee and the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee that Israel would review how effectively the Egyptians and Palestinians halt the smuggling of weapons from Egypt to the Gaza Strip through the end of this year before deciding on withdrawing from the Philadelphi Corridor - the narrow strip between Egypt and Gaza. Now Mofaz doesn't want to even wait around to see what happens.

 

Commentary of the last week

The Landau Candidacy

By Dr. Aaron Lerner, World Jewish News Agency International Commentator and IMRA Director, Israel.                 

MK Uzi Landau's candidacy for the chairmanship of the Likud and its candidate for prime minister may be the only remaining bright spot in the Israeli political scene.  Landau's universally recognized integrity and demonstrated willingness to put national over personal interest sets him apart from the rest of the field.

MIT Ph.D. Landau is hardly an ivory tower ideologue. Though many may recall how Landau, as Minister of Internal Security in the first Sharon Administration, closed down Orient House and carefully worked to restore Israeli access to the Temple Mount, perhaps the best illustration of Uzi Landau's performance in office was the dramatic change in the handling of Israeli Arab rioters during his tenure. The deaths of Israeli Arab rioters in Wadi Ara during the Barak administration poisoned the atmosphere creating a situation that law enforcement officials seemed to have to choose between enforcing the law and avoiding potentially dangerous confrontation. Under Landau's leadership the police achieved both. Rioters were photographed in the act but only detained on the scene as a last resort in the case of a truly life threatening situation.  Instead the rioters were arrested in the middle of the night as their neighbors slept. As a finishing touch, the police came equipped with the incriminating photographs to silence families protesting the innocence of the rioters being detained. The incidents of rioting plummeted.

But is Landau's candidacy relevant?

It depends in part on the situation in the country when the primaries are held. If there is relative calm and only minor diplomatic pressure on Israel at the time of the vote then we may be in for a horse race between Netanyahu and Sharon with Landau far behind. On the other hand, if the seeds of retreat already begin bearing their poisoned fruit along with heavy diplomatic pressure on Israel for more concessions an angry Likud membership may opt to punish the politicians responsible for the disaster and reward Landau for his steadfast opposition to retreat.

In the meantime Landau's challenge is to rebuff efforts by the media, and his competition, to marginalize him.  Only time will tell if he has the resources to contend with the well financed Sharon and Netanyahu campaigns.