Egypt is a nation without external military threats to its sovereignty. None of its neighbors can threaten Egypt’s territorial sovereignty, yet the United States is arming Egypt at an alarming rate. The only reason Egypt would need a strong army is just in case it decides to go to war against Israel in the future.
This has been a long-standing issue for many, including open-eyed Israeli lawmakers and not a few US congressmen who just do not see the logic in pouring high-quality American arms into Egypt.
To repeat: Egypt has no need of a massive, US-equipped army except to conduct war against Israel, which is the only neighboring country that poses any kind of military challenge, but which has absolutely no designs on Egyptian territory.
So basically the US oversaw a peace treaty between Israel and Egypt, but as part of the deal agreed to arm Egypt for the day that treaty breaks down. Does this make any sense?
Some will argue that as part of that deal, the US also began its massive military aid to Israel. The difference is that Israel does in fact face numerous regional military threats to its sovereignty, and is in great need of a strong military.
Still others will argue that Israel did in the past conquer Egyptian territory, thus the Egyptian request for military aid to deter Israel in the future. Of course, that position ignores the fact that Israel conquered the Sinai Peninsula as a result of repeated Egyptian aggression against and invasions of Israel.
Arming Hamas
The situation is made even more ludicrous by the fact that Egypt is directly facilitating the arming of Hamas and the establishment of Gaza as the world’s most heavily fortified terrorist haven on earth.
A senior Israeli security official revealed this week that an astonishing 40 tons of weapons, including crates of high-grade explosives and advanced anti-tank missiles, have been smuggled into Gaza via the Egyptian Sinai over the past two months alone.
Now, the Gaza-Sinai border is only 8 miles long. It is impossible to bring such an enormous amount of weaponry across the border undetected. We are not talking about hand guns and bags of bullets that can be hidden in luggage. We are talking about crates of explosives and shoulder-mounted missile launchers.
Egypt is allowing the weapons to flow almost unimpeded into Hamas-controlled Gaza at a time when the US is trying to isolate and weaken Hamas. Cairo is also directly facilitating the activities of a group that appears on the US list of recognized terrorist organizations.
How can a nation that is acting contrary to US interests in the region and aiding an enemy in the global war on terror be the second largest recipient of American military aid? Especially when the only possible use of that aid is to wage war against a US ally?