Israeli MK: "If Egyptian Soldier Enter Sinai - Cassus Belli"

Well, you can't deny the logic. If Egypt sends troops into the Sinai, and begin occupying it, this will be a violation of the terms of the peace treaty Egyptian-Israel made in '79. ...And thus, would constitute a cassus belli.

MK Aryeh Eldad (National Union) warned Sunday that Israel must prepare for the possibility that Egypt will deploy its military in the Sinai peninsula – and respond to that act as a declaration of war.

Eldad, who is a member of the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Security Committee, said Israel "must prepare for the annulment" of the treaty, or its abrogation without a formal annulment.
Israel could face a situation in which "the Sinai will no longer be just a place for storing arms and training, and military forces beyond what was agreed upon in the peace treaty will enter it," he said. "World public opinion should be prepared for the fact that this would be a casus belli," he said.

Eldad added that he does not believe Israel's government will take these steps, but also said that "we cannot afford not to do this" because "otherwise we will find Egyptian divisions hurtling in our direction through Sinai."
US forces deployed in the Sinai provide no protection, he said, because they might be evacuated "by means of a single phone call" as occurred in the case of a UN force stationed in Sinai before the Six Day War.

Link

I wonder just how quickly that brings the rest of the world into the war? It's amazing how may people don't know this these days, but we have U.S. Military sitting between Israel and Egypt to prevent this very thing. Well, not JUST American military forces, but international military under the auspices of the UN and by authority of the 1979 treaty.

Multinational Force & Observers

They're still there and caught right in the middle if the war starts on land between Egypt and Israel. Hmmm.... Perhaps some budget cutting to bring Americans out of those observation posts would be a decent thought at this point?

Egyptian military may make this move to solidify their position as leaders of their country. That would make the populace back off on their rant for freedoms. However, Israel does not need any help defeating Egypt again. They could handle a lot of countries, as before, who are trying to destroy them.

Watch for Israeli bombing of Iran, bringing Pakistan, Russia, and China into potential conflict, which would then involve us. Perhaps this potential threat is one of the reasons we have established military posts in that region. We are "one up" on them at this point.

reply to post by dontreally


Well, I've always believed peace agreements should be re-newed every 20 years; much do tend to change in that time and these need to be tweaked, additions may need to be added etc.

32 years is a long time without reviewing the treaty.

Hereis a link to the full text of the peace treaty.

I flipped through it and I couldn't find the passage where it says that Egyptians troops may not be in the Sinai area. If this information is really in this treaty it's hidden.

Doesn't following passage say, that Egypt should have full sovereignty of this area?

[...]
Article I Egypt's resumption of the exercise of full sovereignty over the Sinai provided for in paragraph 2 of Article I shall occur with regard to each area upon Israel's withdrawal from the area.
[...]

Either it's only rightwing Israel propaganda or I'm too blind to find this information

Originally posted by Fenrin
Hereis a link to the full text of the peace treaty.

I flipped through it and I couldn't find the passage where it says that Egyptians troops may not be in the Sinai area. If this information is really in this treaty it's hidden.

Doesn't following passage say, that Egypt should have full sovereignty of this area?

[...]
Article I Egypt's resumption of the exercise of full sovereignty over the Sinai provided for in paragraph 2 of Article I shall occur with regard to each area upon Israel's withdrawal from the area.
[...]

Either it's only rightwing Israel propaganda or I'm too blind to find this information

I believe it's more like a formal restriction than a prohibition on Egyptian forces. Egyptians obviously DO have military forces at the Gaza border because Israel shot up a few them recently in a cross border attack. I also recall some argument at the time about Egypt wanting to raise it's number of troops in the Sinai for defense of the pipelines and other infrastructure the terrorists were starting to attack before Egypt fell to military. They were told no..so it's an agreement of forces.

If I'm not mistaken, Egypt under Mubarak was fighting the Jihadi element and pretty seriously when they could manage it. That would seem to suggest some pretty serious anti-terrorist elements in the Egyptian military command. So...It isn't the military I'd worry about crossing the Sinai and attacking Israel. The Muslim Brotherhood just hasn't had the time to fully infiltrate and purge the military yet. It's the military standing back and doing nothing while thousands or 10's of thousands of Jihadi fighters do it that Israel needs to worry about. Hmmm

Originally posted by Wrabbit2000
I wonder just how quickly that brings the rest of the world into the war? It's amazing how may people don't know this these days, but we have U.S. Military sitting between Israel and Egypt to prevent this very thing. Well, not JUST American military forces, but international military under the auspices of the UN and by authority of the 1979 treaty.

Multinational Force & Observers

They're still there and caught right in the middle if the war starts on land between Egypt and Israel. Hmmm.... Perhaps some budget cutting to bring Americans out of those observation posts would be a decent thought at this point?

Perhaps the presence of these "observers" is the reason the Treaty has been effective.

I think some skirmishes have happened, one in particular recently resulting in some Egyptian deaths and involved a different group?

I wonder if the observers are involved with Gaza, and why the smuggling continues?

reply to post by dontreally


I think they already are occupying the Sinai Penninsula. When Archeaologist Sincha Jacobovici was doing his show "the exodus decoded" he found the real Mt. Sinai and it was on a military installation reservation and the soldiers there told him he couldn't take a camera crew up with him so he took footage with a camcorder and then went under the fence and up the plateau. he fou nd where Moses struck water from the rocks and many other things.

So yeah if thats true, then the egyptians have been occupying Sinai for quite some time and have an airbase there.

Mmmmmm and when Israel killed Egyptian soldiers on the border between Gaza and Egypt, that wasn't a casus belli? Just saying... It would be rediculous to go to war with Egypt for sending additional troops to the Sinai. Quite clearly both sides have to draw the line in the sand at some point, but active diplomacy can go far further in aleviating conflict and coming to some form of formal agreement.

Also, if Israel is opposed to additional troops being sent by Egypt to the Sinai it shouldn't be suprised if border control isn't as stringent as they would like and if the pipelines sending gas to Israel are blown up more often. Conditions on the groun have changed which may require additional troop numbers, although this should be agreed upon by both sides.

So yeah if thats true, then the egyptians have been occupying Sinai for quite some time and have an airbase there.

The world would already know. You cannot hide airbases and military installations that simply. All it would take is a flyover by an Israeli plane and they would be easily spotted.

None-the-less this is an entirely hypothetical situation and I believe it is unlikely to occur.