(Economist) "Sometimes you have to subordinate strategic considerations to tactical needs," says Ehud Barak, Israel's defense minister. This is one such time: Mr. Barak, backed by the current prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, is going to agree to Egypt deploying thousands of troops in Sinai even though the Israel-Egypt peace treaty strictly forbids it. They will have helicopters and armored vehicles, Barak says, but no tanks beyond the lone battalion already stationed there. Israel faces a dilemma with far-reaching strategic consequences. Thirty years of peace with Egypt have rested, above all, on a demilitarized Sinai. The peninsula is patrolled by an international force and monitored by America from the air, to ensure that both sides keep their armies out, even though Sinai is sovereign Egyptian soil. Until now, Israel had said no to Egyptian demands to let more troops on to the peninsula, beyond what is specified in the 1979 peace treaty. Yet it urgently needs Egypt to tighten security.
2011-08-26 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive