Former deputy head of the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency), MK Yoel Hasson (Kadima), said he wanted to "throw cold water" on excitement surrounding an attempt to smuggle powerful explosives from Egypt that was thwarted overnight Monday.
There are great dangers coming from the South, he told Army Radio Tuesday afternoon, "but we deal with them all the time."Asked whether the new Egyptian regime was being more or less cooperative than former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak, Hasson asserted that "nothing has changed since the elections," which were won by the Muslim Brotherhood. "What there was (before) continues to exist in the security spectrum."
There are several smuggling bodies operating in the Sinai, he explained, fueled by great economic interests. The profits from smuggling economic migrants alone, he claimed, brings in $9 million per month. Now, with its plan to stem the flow of Africans coming through Egypt, "Israel is threatening their income," Hasson said.
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