Egypt Recalls Ambassador to Israel Over Shootings

Started by jimmy olsen, August 20, 2011, 08:41:03 AM

Previous topic - Next topic
Print
Go Down Pages1 2
User actions

jimmy olsen

August 20, 2011, 08:41:03 AM
Looks like things are already getting tense between Israel and the new Egyptian government. :(

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111903596904576520133388575292.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
QuoteEgypt Recalls Ambassador to Israel Over Shootings

By JOSHUA MITNICK And MATT BRADLEY

TEL AVIV—Egypt said Saturday it would recall its ambassador from Israel to protest the deaths of at least three Egyptian troops killed in a shootout between Israeli soldiers and Palestinian militants who had launched a deadly attack on Israel from Egyptian soil.

Egypt's interim government said the envoy would be withdrawn until Israel concludes its investigation into the deaths, Associated Press reported.

Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said the Israeli government was holding consultations on the Egyptian move, although officials said they hadn't received an official notice about the withdrawal.

On Friday, Israel's army killed seven Palestinians while militants fired two dozen rockets into southern Israel from the Gaza Strip, in an escalation of violence triggered by a chain of attacks that began with the killing of eight Israelis near the border with Egypt the day earlier.

The casualties highlighted the erosion of security in Sinai, which Israel says helped Palestinian militants from Gaza infiltrate the desert peninsula and carry out the worst strikes near the Egypt-Israel border since the neighbors' 1979 peace treaty.

Though Israeli government officials insisted security cooperation with the Egyptian military remained unchanged, new indications emerged Friday of the continuing fraying of Israel-Egyptian ties, as Egypt complained to Israel that its soldiers killed Egyptian security forces in the clashes.

Palestinian medical officials said four of the Palestinians killed were militants and three were civilians. The Israeli army said it attacked teams attempting to fire rockets at southern Israel cities, as well as weapons facilities. Militants in Gaza fired some two dozen Katyusha rockets, one hitting a synagogue in the city of Ashdod.

In a signal that the violence is set to continue, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday vowed again to exact a "heavy price'' for the raid. On Thursday, Israel killed five militants in the Gaza city of Rafah they say were involved in the attacks.

The Hamas military wing, in turn, said it wouldn't commit any longer to a more than two-year de facto truce with Israel.

Israel's army was surprised on Thursday afternoon by the unusually bold and meticulously planned terrorist offensive against commuter buses, civilian cars and soldiers along a border highway just 13 miles north of the Israeli resort of Eilat.

Initial reaction from the Egyptian public and politicians offered a hint as to how Egypt's post-revolutionary transitional leadership will have to accommodate popular antipathy toward Israel.

The reaction contrasted with the relatively pro-Israel posture of the former regime of President Hosni Mubarak, who was ousted in February, was a reliable security partner to Israel.

On Friday, Egyptian Prime Minister Essam Sharaf held an emergency meeting on the situation in Sinai, while the government filed a formal complaint with the Israeli army blaming it for the deaths of five Egyptian security personnel in the shootout with militants on Thursday, according to the state news service. In comments before the emergency meeting, Mr. Sharaf told reporters that "Egyptian blood is too precious to be spilt without response," according to the state news service.

Israel's army said it was probing exchanges of fire with Palestinian militants in the area.

Amr Moussa, the former secretary general of the Arab League and a presidential candidate in Egypt, demanded on a Twitter posting a "strong response" from the Egyptian government. Hundreds of Egyptian protesters gathered Friday night outside the Israeli embassy in Cairo.

In an effort to make sense of what the worst militant attack in years meant for the two allies, Israeli analysts suggested the army face new realities in the Sinai following the fall of former President Mubarak.

"What happened yesterday in southern Israel was the realization of Israel's security nightmare scenario. The question was not was if this would happen, but rather when,'' wrote Ben Caspit in the daily Maariv newspaper. "What is needed is a dramatic strategic step, a step that cannot be found in view of the poor cards that were dealt in Cairo and the poor regional circumstances.''

Israelis have been anxious since the fall of President Mubarak about security in Sinai. A pipeline supplying Egyptian gas to Israel and Jordan has been attacked several time, and officials have warned of increased smuggling at the Gaza border.

Israel has accelerated work on a border fence, but it is far from finished. Recently 1,000 Egyptian soldiers deployed in Sinai.

An Israeli government official cautioned that Israel would continue to cooperate with Egypt, and needed to conduct a more exhaustive review of the attack before drawing any conclusions.

"There needs to be a clear commitment from everyone that there is stability. I think the Egyptians are trying,'' said Yosef Kuperwasser, the director-general of the Strategic Affairs Ministry. "They have a commitment, but it's a difficult task. Sinai is a big region.''

Gamal Abdel Gawad, political analyst at the government-funded Al Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies, added, "If the Israelis use this opportunity to direct their criticism and exert pressure on Egypt, this could definitely hurt Egyptian-Israeli relations and make their relations even worse.''

—Associated Press contributed to this article
It is far better for the truth to tear my flesh to pieces, then for my soul to wander through darkness in eternal damnation.

Jet: So what kind of woman is she? What's Julia like?
Faye: Ordinary. The kind of beautiful, dangerous ordinary that you just can't leave alone.
Jet: I see.
Faye: Like an angel from the underworld. Or a devil from Paradise.
--------------------------------------------
1 Karma Chameleon point

Tamas

#1
August 20, 2011, 09:18:48 AM
Well, it is certainly very convinient for the Egyptian military junta.

Tamas

#2
August 20, 2011, 11:00:34 AM
I wonder why this is being ignored here. Just like the Tottenham riots initially  :hmm:

The present Egyptian regime is much much more highly likely to use the CB which was just given to them / provoked out by them

HisMajestyBOB

#3
August 20, 2011, 02:08:33 PM
And Bibi isn't exactly the diplomatic type, either.
Three lovely Prada points for HoI2 help

Martinus

#4
August 20, 2011, 04:31:33 PM
Well, if you go to bed with a blood murderous tyrant, don't expect the revolutionaries who take him down to like you.  :hmm:

citizen k

#5
August 20, 2011, 04:50:48 PM
Quote from: Martinus on August 20, 2011, 04:31:33 PM
Well, if you go to bed with a blood murderous tyrant, don't expect the revolutionaries who take him down to like you.  :hmm:

Russia should be worried then, especially in regards to Libya and Syria.

LaCroix

#6
August 20, 2011, 05:05:44 PM
Quote from: Martinus on August 20, 2011, 04:31:33 PM
Well, if you go to bed with a blood murderous tyrant, don't expect the revolutionaries who take him down to like you.  :hmm:

that's an.. interesting.. way of putting it

Martinus

#7
August 20, 2011, 05:09:35 PM
Quote from: citizen k on August 20, 2011, 04:50:48 PM
Quote from: Martinus on August 20, 2011, 04:31:33 PM
Well, if you go to bed with a blood murderous tyrant, don't expect the revolutionaries who take him down to like you.  :hmm:

Russia should be worried then, especially in regards to Libya and Syria.

Ok.

Valmy

#8
August 20, 2011, 05:10:03 PM
Yet Obama has been friendly to Poland after they went to bed with Bushitler  :hmm:
Quote"This is a Russian warship. I propose you lay down arms and surrender to avoid bloodshed & unnecessary victims. Otherwise, you'll be bombed."

Zmiinyi defenders: "Russian warship, go fuck yourself."

Martinus

#9
August 20, 2011, 05:25:53 PM
Quote from: Valmy on August 20, 2011, 05:10:03 PM
Yet Obama has been friendly to Poland after they went to bed with Bushitler  :hmm:

Not really. He screwed us over on the anti-missile shield deployment and "reset" his relations with Russia.

Admiral Yi

#10
August 20, 2011, 05:41:06 PM
Recalling an ambassador for having 3 of your guys killed seems a pretty moderate response.  I think Marty's hopes for jihad against the Zionist Entity(tm) will be frustrated.

grumbler

#11
August 20, 2011, 05:48:52 PM
Quote from: Martinus on August 20, 2011, 04:31:33 PM
Well, if you go to bed with a blood murderous tyrant, don't expect the revolutionaries who take him down to like you.  :hmm:
The people running Egypt today are the same people who ran it before the "revolution" that wasn't a revolution.  The top guy stepped down, but that was pretty much it for the "revolution."  :hmm:
The future is all around us, waiting, in moments of transition, to be born in moments of revelation. No one knows the shape of that future or where it will take us. We know only that it is always born in pain.   -G'Kar

Bayraktar!

Razgovory

#12
August 20, 2011, 06:06:57 PM
Quote from: grumbler on August 20, 2011, 05:48:52 PM
Quote from: Martinus on August 20, 2011, 04:31:33 PM
Well, if you go to bed with a blood murderous tyrant, don't expect the revolutionaries who take him down to like you.  :hmm:
The people running Egypt today are the same people who ran it before the "revolution" that wasn't a revolution.  The top guy stepped down, but that was pretty much it for the "revolution."  :hmm:

Yeah, pretty much.
I've given it serious thought. I must scorn the ways of my family, and seek a Japanese woman to yield me my progeny. He shall live in the lands of the east, and be well tutored in his sacred trust to weave the best traditions of Japan and the Sacred South together, until such time as he (or, indeed his house, which will periodically require infusion of both Southern and Japanese bloodlines of note) can deliver to the South it's independence, either in this world or in space.  -Lettow April of 2011

Raz is right. -MadImmortalMan March of 2017

Tamas

#13
August 21, 2011, 03:42:57 AM
Quote from: Martinus on August 20, 2011, 04:31:33 PM
Well, if you go to bed with a blood murderous tyrant, don't expect the revolutionaries who take him down to like you.  :hmm:

please try and be less an east euro. kthxbye

Richard Hakluyt

#14
August 21, 2011, 03:54:37 AM
Quote from: grumbler on August 20, 2011, 05:48:52 PM
Quote from: Martinus on August 20, 2011, 04:31:33 PM
Well, if you go to bed with a blood murderous tyrant, don't expect the revolutionaries who take him down to like you.  :hmm:
The people running Egypt today are the same people who ran it before the "revolution" that wasn't a revolution.  The top guy stepped down, but that was pretty much it for the "revolution."  :hmm:

Yes indeed. I am not getting the exciting vibes from the "Arab Spring" that I did from the events in Eastern Europe 20-odd years ago. The prospect of real positive change seems slight.
Print
Go Up Pages1 2
User actions