Egypt's salami tactics

The Jerusalem Post ^ | 11/20/2002 | Uri Dan

[eclectic]

The head of the Egyptian Intelligence and Security Services, Omar Suleiman, was not invited to lunch during his recent meeting with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. This was a matter of politeness. Because of the fast of Ramadan it was forbidden to offer the guest delicacies from the kitchen of the prime minister's official residence, when Suleiman paid a visit to Jerusalem last Thursday.

After Suleiman's previous visit to Sharon, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak complained to Shimon Peres about the poor meal he claimed was served to Suleiman: "Just two hot dogs," Mubarak said. Sharon humorously promised Mubarak in a telephone conversation that "next time I will give him three."

Because of the fast of Ramadan and in order to avoid hurting his guest's feelings, Sharon could not offer Suleiman even a single sausage. Despite this the conversation between Sharon and Suleiman was a frank one. The boss of the Egyptian Intelligence Services admitted to Sharon that the representatives of Hamas and Fatah had failed in their talks held in Egypt and had not reached an agreement to halt the terrorist attacks inside Israel.

Sharon reiterated his position that the Palestinian terrorist attacks on Israelis everywhere must stop, if the Palestinians want the diplomatic negotiations to be renewed. There will be no compromise in this matter, said Sharon, and added: Let us assume for a moment that Hamas and Fatah actually arrive at an agreement, but the Islamic Jihad or some other organization continues its attacks. What value can be attached to such an agreement?

About 30 hours elapsed from the time Sharon said these words to Suleiman until the Islamic Jihad proudly announced that its people had killed 12 Israelis in an ambush in Hebron.

This did not prevent the Israeli media from falling into the trap of the campaign of disinformation waged by the Palestinians and unnamed sources in the European Union.

On Channel 1 television, Arab affairs commentator Oded Granot related that Hamas and Fatah had apparently come to an agreement to halt the attacks inside Israel.

Channel 1 even repeated this misleading report on Friday night, at a time when the Israeli dead lay in Hebron after being killed by the bullets of the Islamic Jihad.

This was a classic demonstration of the theater of the absurd. Twenty-five years after Egyptian president Anwar Sadat made his historic visit to Jerusalem to request peace with Israel, his successors continued to attempt to undermine the very existence of the Jewish state by means of the mirage of the "peace process." Sadat believed after his failure in the Yom Kippur War that it was impossible to destroy Israel by war. But contrary to the perception that Sadat therefore accepted Israel, he decided to bring about Israel's end by other means. Sadat's successor, Mubarak, is devotedly trying to realize his dream. Strangely enough, although Mubarak claims the leadership of the Arab world, he has never succeeded in persuading his protege, Yasser Arafat, to halt his terrorist offensive.

There is therefore a well-founded suspicion that Mubarak would like Israel to continue the policy of Yitzhak Rabin, Shimon Peres, and Ehud Barak, as expressed by Rabin: "To conduct negotiations as if there were no terrorism, and to combat terrorism as if there were no negotiations."

THIS MATCHES the doctrine of Arafat and of the Arabs in general that Israel should be destroyed by the salami method: To cut off slices each time, i.e. additional territorial and diplomatic concessions, after each terrorist attack.

In fact Israel gave up 80 percent of Hebron and another 13% of Judea and Samaria, even though Arafat had already given the green light for terrorism and for attacks by suicide bombers. However, Arafat and Mubarak encountered a serious problem. In contrast to the situation to which they had become accustomed over the course of seven years, Sharon came to power in February 2001. Perhaps he likes salami, but only as a delicacy and not as policy. What is certain is that he likes sausages: Hebrew National hot dogs, with mustard, at the corner of 42nd Street in Manhattan, were his favorite delicacy when he used to walk freely in New York. Now that he is prime minister, his security people don't allow him to do so.

Sharon refused, and continues to refuse, to let Israel become a victim of the salami tactics of Mubarak and Arafat, with the support of the European Union. A senior representative of the EU stayed in Egypt in order to encourage the unfruitful talks last week between representatives of the Fatah and the Hamas.

Mubarak in his speeches, with blatant cheek, accused Sharon of "not wanting peace." In contrast, Mubarak appealed in his declarations to the "peace camp" in Israel. This was a crude and overt attempt by the Egyptian president to interfere in Israel's internal affairs, as part of an anti-Israeli campaign in which Egyptian TV also revived The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.

What brought its Arab enemies to intensified activity against Israel were the opinion polls that predict not only Sharon's expected victory but also an increase in the Likud's strength in the coming elections. They are therefore concentrating all their efforts in order to try and change these expected results. They realize that if a leader like Sharon stands at Israel's head, as the leader of a Likud that is expected to double its strength, this will bring to an end the salami policy that so successfully in previous years weakened Israel and brought her to the brink of war.

This explains the tremendous effort being made by the Arab enemies to push Sharon's government into the corner. The major method used is to intensify Palestinian terrorist attacks against Israelis everywhere, in order to demonstrate that the government is not protecting its citizens.

Arafat and his supporters in Arab countries fail to understand that the Israelis will respond in the exact opposite way and will give greater support in the elections to the Likud and the parties of the Right, because most Israelis realize that their future lies in the balance.

The best illustration of the aims of Israel's enemies can be found in a cartoon that appeared in the PA daily, al-Hayat al-Jadida on November 15, the day after the failure of the talks in Egypt: Two hands, one bearing the word Hamas and the other the word Fatah, strangling Sharon.

These enemies and their supporters are in for disappointment. According to the latest polls, several more years will apparently go by until Sharon will become an ordinary citizen again, and will be able to enjoy a hot dog during a private visit to New York.

The writer is the Mideast correspondent of The New York Post.

[eclectic]

Let them eat salami

[lilylangtree]

Should have offered ole Suleiman a big pot of pinto beans without the hamhock, cornbread and onions and Mubarek might felt a little better.