” and thinking preparation is sometimes a deterrent... “
Agreed, Mom...
It would seem to make more sense, to me, at least, if Israel were to allow Egypt to move troops into a long-standing DMZ - to be offset by an equal number of Israeli troops moving into the Northern Sinai...
The decision to violate a DMZ, or to allow such a violation, is not one to be taken lightly....
And the hits just keep on coming, folks...
{this is a cross-post}
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2666153/posts
Egypt’s limited reserves raise fears of financial crisis
Telegraph (UK) ^ | 11:57AM GMT 31 Jan 2011
Posted on Monday, January 31, 2011 9:24:53 AM by DeaconBenjamin
In the two working days after the protests erupted last Tuesday, which was a bank holiday, Egyptians and foreign investors transferred hundreds of millions of dollars out of Egypt, currency traders estimated.
The government had $36bn (£23bn) in foreign reserves at end-December, central bank figures showed. According to a note by Citigroup on January 27, it also had $21bn of additional assets with commercial banks at end-October - its so-called “unofficial reserves”.
These numbers suggest there is no immediate danger of a balance of payments crisis. But scenes of chaos at Cairo’s main airport on Sunday, as both foreigners and Egyptians tried to get flights out of the country, indicated outflows of money could reach damaging levels over the medium term.
Egypt has a financial war chest, “but the war chest is going to be depleted if this situation continues for several weeks rather than a few days,” said John Sfakianakis, chief economist at Banque Saudi Fransi.
“When markets begin to make bets against (the Egyptian pound), it will have a severe impact. The whole fiscal position of the Egyptian economy is going to be put to a very hard test if the violence, rioting continues for several weeks.”
Egypt is vulnerable to a reversal of large flows of foreign portfolio investment that have been attracted by high yields on domestic government debt. Barclays Capital estimated foreign holdings of Egyptian assets before the protests were close to $25bn, with roughly half held in Treasury bills and bonds.
But the damage from any extended disruption to tourism could be considerable; Egypt earned $11.59bn from tourism last fiscal year. It ran a current account deficit of $802m in the July-September quarter of 2010, and because of tourism the deficit is likely to be much higher in the current quarter.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
The Israeli’s have operatives all over the ME. There has to be some very heavy threat going on under the radar. I am still thinking that Iran is directly involved. They are posturing for some sort of political advantage here.
In reference to that this may be connected:
1615: Six Palestinian prisoners who broke out of prison in Egypt during the chaos there have reached the Gaza Strip, a prisoners’ family liaison group says, according to AFP - some using the illicit tunnels going under the border between Egypt and the Gaza Strip.