Middle East Update

Contingent on Egypt’s agreement, Israel is planning to build a fence along the border with Sinai in order to prevent terrorists, smugglers, and refugees crossing the border, an Israeli official told the Knesset Committee on Foreign Workers on Tuesday. August 28.

Amir Oren
The IDF senior command held a workshop this week , August 22, on the army’s five-year plan. The IDF will be preparing for the following scenarios in the next five years: thwarting the danger of a hostile country that does not border on Israel achieving nuclear capability (Iran, in particular), a war with Syria, [...]

A number of Arab countries have recently accelerated their nuclear programs in response to Iran’s renegade nuclear quest, claiming they are pursuing the ‘peaceful’ atom. The United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Jordan, and Egypt all have nuclear programs at different stages of development, even though the region has huge oil reserves to produce cheap [...]

Daniel Kurtzer
Egypt’s long-term complacency about the security situation in Gaza came to a shocking and abrupt end two years ago when Israel pulled out its settlers and army. Not only did Egypt find itself face to face with Palestinians without an Israeli buffer, but Egypt also was a target of Palestinian terrorism in Sinai. The [...]

An Egyptian security official says arrested al-Qaeda members have revealed during interrogation that Khaled Mahmud Ahmed, the head of the group, escaped to Gaza when Egyptian authorities began arresting members of the group in April. (AFP/ABC News-Australia)

Tariq Hasan, a columnist for the Egyptian government daily Al-Ahram, wrote on June 23:

“In Egypt there are those who are trying to reproduce what Hamas did in Gaza….In light of this severe threat…we must learn the lessons without delay.”

Beyond looking to keep the peace process going after the stunning events in Gaza, Egypt and other Arab countries fear the impact of radicals’ control, which could give a boost to Islamic opposition groups on their own soil. On Thursday June 21, a top official from Egypt’s ruling National Democratic [...]

Egyptian police seized 1-1/2 tons of explosives in central Sinai on June 4, Security forces on a routine patrol found the explosives packed in 40 sacks and hidden in a mountainous area.

Following disengagement from Gaza in 2005, Israel agreed to allow Egypt to deploy 750 of its border policemen near the Egypt-Gaza border. But according to a high-ranking official in Jerusalem, the policemen are really elite undercover commandos who were deployed there by Cairo in an effort to change the strategic balance [...]

At least 6 killed, 35 wounded in factional weekend fighting in Gaza
According to new reports, Egyptian mediators have helped the warring Palestinian Hamas and Fatah factions agree to a ceasefire following one of the bloodiest weekends in the Palestinian Authority in recent months. Despite the supposed agreement however, Hamas and Fatah forces clashed again today, [...]