If Brotherhood takes over, IDF will face formidable enemy

Analysis: This year is turning into critical one for Israeli isolation in the Mideast. Turkey is gone and Egypt appears to be on way.

By YAAKOV KATZ
IDF soldiers on Gaza border 311 (photo credit: AP)
IDF soldiers on Gaza border 311
(photo credit: AP)
The collapse of Hosni Mubarak’s regime in Egypt is not yet about Israel but soon will be, depending on his successor.
If the Muslim Brotherhood grabs the reins in the massive Arab country, Israel will face an enemy with one of the largest and strongest militaries around, built on some of the most advanced American-made platforms.
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The impact on Israel will be immediate – the IDF will need to undergo major structural changes, new units will need to be created and forces in the South will likely need to be beefed up. Since the Yom Kippur War in 1973, the IDF has not had to worry about two fronts at once. Until now.
The appointment of Intelligence Minister Omar Suleiman as the vice president in Egypt is a reassuring sign for Israel.
Suleiman has played a key role in Israeli- Egyptian relations over the years and is considered in charge of the “Israeli Dossier” His office has been responsible for coordinating efforts to stop smuggling via tunnels under the Philadelphi Corridor with Gaza and he is considered something of a moderate in comparison to outgoing Defense Minister Mohamed Tantawi.
Click here for full Jpost coverage of unrest in Egypt
Click here for full Jpost coverage of unrest in Egypt
In a cable published recently by WikiLeaks, Suleiman told the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff in 2009 that Egypt was stopping Iranian money from making its way through the country to Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
A new regime in Egypt could change all of that, and the transfer of Iranian funds to Hamas would be the least of Israel’s concerns.
Due to the peace with Egypt and Jordan as well as the toppling of Saddam Hussein in Iraq, the IDF has spent the last decade focused on the internal Palestinian threat, Lebanon, Syria and Iran. Israel’s military buildup was performed accordingly, including procurement plans regarding the number of tanks, armored personnel carriers and fighter jets acquired.
“With its current assets, the IDF will currently find it very difficult to be able to deal with two live fronts at once,” a senior defense official admitted recently.
In the meantime, in Israel the hope is that Mubarak survives the calls for his downfall and that the appointment of Suleiman as well as the dismissal of the government succeeds in easing the demonstrations on the streets.
At the moment, assessments in Israeli intelligence circles are that Mubarak will survive. The demonstrations throughout Egypt, while large and growing, do not have an organized leadership behind them, and fearing a violent crackdown, the Muslim Brotherhood is staying underground.
The question, though, is what happens the “day after” Mubarak? Who will succeed him and what role will the Muslim Brotherhood play? Israel’s concerns though are not isolated to Egypt. One former senior Mossad official said on Saturday that Israel needed to be more concerned with a potential revolution in Jordan.
“In Egypt, Israel has Sinai as a major buffer zone,” the official said. “This is not the case in Jordan, where there is a massive Palestinian population that could directly threaten Israel through the West Bank.”
This year is turning into a critical one for Israel, which is finding itself increasingly isolated within the Middle East. Turkey is gone and Egypt appears to be on the way.