Media Criticism, Political Commentary, War Commentary

Smart Diplomacy

2 Comments

The Egyptians turn on us. But there is this:

The idea that observing the treaty with Israel is something the US “buys” from the Egyptian military with aid is a typical US liberal media construct. It magnifies our importance and flatters our narcissism, distorts the nature of our relationships with Israel and its neighbors, and provides a simplistic picture of both Egypt and US policy. The Egyptian military supports the peace treaty with Israel because stability on its eastern frontier (and the return of Sinai, which came with the treaty) are in Egypt’s national interest.

I think that one of the reasons the military tossed out Morsi (in addition to the obvious public dissatisfaction with his incompetent and ideological, undemocratic rule) was that they didn’t want to get sucked into a war with Israel.

2 thoughts on “Smart Diplomacy”

  1. Most of the Senior Military guys in Egypt were trained here, in the UK and in Germany. I remember being in Navy schools with some of their NCOs. Those guys were NOT religious fanatics and most of them watched the Iranian Crisis with us in 1979.

    They may not want their son or daughter marrying a Jew, but most had a live and let live attitude. PLUS, they’d just had their butts kicked in 1973 in the Yom Kippur War, so going to war with Israel, never looks like a good idea to them now.

    I personally don’t think the Egyptians want to see Iran get nukes any more than Israel does. And going to war WITH Israel would be kindling for some Iranian fiery nuttery.

  2. No they don’t want to go to war with Israel. Doing so would be highly likely to fatally compromise the dominant Egyptian narrative about the 1973 war which is that they won it. This is actually a defensible point of view. Victory in war is achieving your objectives. In 1973, the Egyptian objectives were to give the Israelis a highly public bloody nose and to get the Suez and Sinai back. They did the first on the battlefield early in the proceedings. Egyptians prefer to overlook how things went a few days later when Israel returned the favor with interest, but, hey, at the conference table they got Suez and Sinai back so – as far as they’re concerned – they won! But the upper ranks of the Egyptian military has always understood the “TKO” aspect of their victory and don’t wish to push their luck.

Comments are closed.