Al-Jazeera, Qatar, March 1
Last month, rockets fired from the Sinai Peninsula landed in the Israeli port city of Eilat. Although you might not know this, Israeli forces responded by bombing several targets, believed to be associated with the Islamist forces, from the air and from the ground. The Egyptian media failed to report on these incursions. My suspicion is that the instructions not to report were given from above, perhaps even from the president himself. Indeed, in recent months, the IDF has exacerbated its attacks in Sinai, and allowed its forces to cross into Egyptian territory both by air and by foot. But the Israeli operations didn’t end with retaliation. Israel has been using these raids in order to promote its own strategic interests in Sinai, often acting in complete isolation of the rocket attacks. It is not difficult to understand Israel’s motivations. In its narrowest part, Israel is a mere 20 kilometers wide. The Israeli Army does not enjoy the strategic depth that so many other nations enjoy. Sinai, however, allows Israel to act against its targets from afar — a privilege it rarely has. Another obvious motivation is Israel’s inherent aggression. As a country that was founded on the displacement of people, as well as one that enhanced its security through the occupation of more territories, Israel cannot resist the temptation of using its force to blur, and renegotiate, its borders. With an Egyptian administration that barely cares about its actions in its backyard, Tel Aviv can set facts on the ground and gain more territory, just as it does in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. It is difficult to tell what Israel’s ultimate ambitions in the Sinai Peninsula are. For all we know, Tel Aviv sees Sinai as part of the solution to the Gaza problem, either by the deportation of Palestinians to Sinai, or through the establishment of a Palestinian state in Gaza and parts of Egypt. Either way, one thing is certain: what is in Israel’s interest is not always in the interest of Egypt, or the rest of the Arab world. – Nabeel Fawli