From the reaction of the Israeli “street,” you would never know that the al-Qaida attacks in Sinai on Oct. 7 were aimed not only at Israel but at Egypt as well. Among the 34 dead with more than 100 injured were Israelis, Russians, Egyptians and Italians.
Instead, between the grumblings of all the salt-of-the-earth Israelis and the goadings of the popular media, you would think that all of Egypt — from President Hosni Mubarak down to the last Egyptian peasant — was in on the bombings and took great pleasure from them.
It never dawned on people here that this was an attack on Egyptian soil, on a major Egyptian hotel and other Egyptian tourist sites, that nine Egyptians were killed. Somehow Israelis didn’t register what every minimally knowledgeable person in the world knows — that this was only the latest in a very long, bloody line of Islamic terrorist attacks on Egyptian targets.
This fortress existence that Israelis live has really blinded them. They can’t see anyone’s suffering but their own. They certainly can’t see Arab suffering. They can’t see that Egypt, taking everything into account, was hurt much more by the Sinai bombings than Israel.
No, the local view is that Israel was the sole victim and Egypt was second to al-Qaida as the perpetrator. Every delay at the Taba border crossing, every mix-up, every hesitation by an Egyptian official to immediately grant any and all Israeli requests was interpreted here as anti-Semitism.
The most telling comment I heard on this subject came from an Israeli security expert on TV who asked the rhetorical question: “If the victims hadn’t been Israeli, would the Egyptian bureaucracy have operated any smoother?”
But go tell Israeli chauvinists and the opinion-makers who push their buttons about Arab- or Third World bureaucracy. They didn’t want to hear it.
The one genuinely despicable thing that did happen in Sinai after the bombings — the looting of corpses and hotel rooms — was blamed on Egypt as a whole, not on a handful of Egyptian scavengers as it should have been.
Thankfully, official Israel, at least at the top, acted with wisdom and decency during this ordeal. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was positively enlightened, thanking Egypt for its cooperation and telling some of his more-rabid cabinet ministers to stop creating bad blood.
The Foreign Ministry called the level of cooperation with Egypt “unprecedented,” noting that Israel wouldn’t have acted so quickly either if it had been asked to let Egyptian soldiers onto its territory after a major terrorist attack. Mossad chief Meir Dagan said the Egyptians showed good intentions throughout.
After the initial shock, confusion and delays, the Egyptians did a good job, according to Israeli rescue and forensic officials in Sinai. Shin Bet’s director, Avi Dichter, was even allowed to wander around Taba, as terribly as that would play on the Egyptian and Arab street.
For the happy-clappy types who like to think the Israeli people are ready for peace, it’s just their paranoiac leaders who aren’t, the aftermath of the terror attacks in Sinai teaches the opposite lesson. When it comes to openmindedness towards Arabs, Ariel Sharon, the Mossad, and Shin Bet are far, far ahead of the Israeli public.
You can say Israelis are entitled to be mistrustful and antagonistic towards Egypt because of all the anti-Israeli radicalism and anti-Semitism in that country. But on the main issue at hand — the threat of al-Qaida and Islamic terrorism — Israelis should finally understand that Mubarak’s Egypt is not our enemy but our enemy’s enemy — in other words, our friend.
And they should appreciate that one of the main reasons the Egyptian regime is hated and hunted by Islamist militants is that it dares to uphold the peace treaty with Israel.
Contrary to many editorials, the Sinai attacks were not Egypt’s 9/11. Egypt’s 9/11 came in 1981, when Egyptian Islamic terrorists killed President Anwar Sadat for signing the Camp David peace accord two years before.
Since then terrorists have tried to assassinate Mubarak several times. They’ve also been bombing Egyptian tourist sites for years, most dramatically in 1997 when they killed 58 foreign tourists in Luxor. In between, they’ve bombed the Egyptian Embassy in Pakistan and tried to assassinate Egyptian Cabinet members.
Nevertheless, some Israelis are now lecturing Egypt about the dangers of Islamic terrorism and reproaching Mubarak’s administration for not fighting it hard enough.
The Egyptian consul general in Eilat brings flowers to Israeli survivors in the hospital. The head of the Shin Bet freely surveys the ruins in Taba. Sharon and Mubarak, who tried to destroy each other in more than one war, offer condolences to each other’s nation over the telephone.
Considering Israel’s history with Egypt, considering the current state of Israeli-Arab relations in general, I find this almost miraculous. To the Israeli street, it means nothing. To the Israeli street, the whole peace with Egypt means nothing.
After all, did you hear about that anti-Semitic article in that Egyptian newspaper the other day? What else is important?
Larry Derfner is a veteran journalist for the Jerusalem Post, where this column previously appeared.
TWO VIEWS:
After Taba tragedy, is Egypt friend or foe?
Cairo is just playing the two-faced game