Egypt’s wake-up call

The Egyptian reaction to the tragic deaths of the policemen deployed to secure Sinai should wake up Israelis to the new reality in Egypt.

By JPOST EDITORIAL
Egyptians hit Israeli flag 311 (photo credit: REUTERS)
Egyptians hit Israeli flag 311
(photo credit: REUTERS)
The killing of several Egyptian border policemen by Israeli security forces on the Sinai border on Thursday has triggered a torrent of condemnations and protests in Cairo and Alexandria.
It appears that IDF troops erroneously fired at the border policemen in response to a suicide bomber blowing himself up on the Egyptian side of the Philadelphi Corridor that separates the Sinai and Gazan sides of Rafah.
The Egyptian reaction to the tragic deaths of the policemen deployed to secure Sinai should wake up Israelis to the new reality in Egypt.
When news of the deaths first emerged, variously reported as between three and five in number, Egypt announced it was recalling its ambassador to Israel.
Now, demands for an official apology are in the offing, bringing to mind the repeated requests by Turkey for an apology from Israel over last year’s commando raid on the protest flotilla to Gaza in which nine activists on board the Mavi Marmara were killed.
The diverse political groupings in Egypt seem to concur that Israel’s ambassador should be expelled unless an official apology is made.
But immediate tensions with Egypt seem to have dissipated and instead of withdrawing its ambassador, the Israeli envoy to Cairo was summoned on Saturday for a dressing down.
When he arrived, he brought a message from Defense Minister Ehud Barak expressing deep regret for the accidental deaths of the policemen and noting that a thorough investigation would be carried out.
Egypt’s state media quoted a high-level source as saying: “The Israeli statement was positive on the surface, but it was not in keeping with the magnitude of the incident and the state of Egyptian anger toward Israeli actions.”
On the Egyptian street, news of the policemen’s deaths has let loose years of pent-up hatred and anger at Israel. Despite the peace between the two countries, it has been no secret that the Egyptian people, state media and television have largely remained rabidly intolerant of the Jewish state.
But with president Hosni Mubarak gone and a military government in place, the masses have felt more comfortable challenging the official policy on Israel.
Almost all Egyptian political parties have latched on to Thursday’s incident as a symbolic episode.
Outside the Israeli Embassy in Cairo, angry protesters vented their venom by torching Israeli flags over the weekend. One man, who climbed on the roof and replaced the Israeli flag with an Egyptian one, was hailed as a hero.
Amr Moussa, a former head of the Arab League and a candidate for president of Egypt, added fuel to the fire by declaring: “Gone forever are the days when Israel will kill our children while we do not respond.”
There has been a lot of talk in the media about Egyptian “dignity” being violated, while calls have been issued on the Egyptian street to turn this military mistake into a diplomatic crisis.
Some Israeli commentators have been quick to demand that Israel work immediately to calm the situation and apologize.
These commentators are correct insofar as they regard the peace treaty with Egypt and the close cooperation between the two countries as vital in maintaining stability in the region.
But they miss the point. While there is good sense in using well-placed apologies to heal unintended wounds, it is also appropriate to ask why Egypt has not communicated all the details of this unfortunate incident to its people.
The Egyptian state media pointedly ignored the fact that the policemen were shot in error. They also did not report that the Palestinian terrorists who carried out Thursday’s attacks disguised themselves in Egyptian police uniforms and snuck under an Egyptian watch tower to infiltrate Israel and murder Israelis.
This has allowed anti-Israel messages in the media to work their magic. The Egyptian media have fed local anger by running with the story that Israel “attacked” Egypt and gunned down members of its security forces.
Ahram Online reported that the gunmen who murdered eight Israelis on Thursday were “unknown armed men” and that Israel was “allegedly chasing Palestinian militants across the Gaza-Egypt border.”
Then there is the blatant hypocrisy of the protesters in Egypt.
They seem to care more about the lives of their security forces when they are taken accidentally by Israel than when they are purposely gunned down by other parties in Sinai. Why, in the past, did they not protest when Egyptian policemen were shot dead by Beduin smugglers or gunmen in Sinai? And why didn’t Egyptian security forces stop protesters from burning Israeli flags at the embassy? Perhaps Israel should also be asking for an apology.