Alwaght- The Sinai Peninsula is an Egyptian territory located east of the country. It borders Gulf of Aqaba from the east, Gulf of Suez from the west, the Mediterranean Sea from the north, and the Red Sea from the south. Home to a population of about 800,000, the Sinai is of strategic position as it covers a considerable part of the Egyptian coasts, beside linking the two continents of Asia and Africa.
The significance of this Egyptian land becomes clear if we know that there have been many disputes over it. The two important sides of the disputes are Egypt and the Israeli regime. The importance of the Sinai is high to a degree that so far Tel Aviv twice invaded it, not to mention the many measures taken by the Israelis on the global diplomatic stage to bring it under their control.
The row continues to date. Earlier this week, the Israeli Social Equality Minister Gila Gamliel called for establishment of a Palestinian state in Egypt’s Sinai. “Sinai is the best place for creating a state of Palestine,” she was quoted as saying. These remarks by the Israeli minister lay bare the fact that Tel Aviv entertains no plans to accept an independent Palestinian state in the Palestinian territories, and that it will in the future press with its measures including occupying further Palestinian lands and Judaizing them.
The Israeli rejection to approve of a Palestinian state is nothing new, as so far many times the Israeli officials came clean on their strong rejection of idea of an independent Palestine.
Naftali Bennett, the Israeli education minister and leader of The Jewish Home political party, in early May and just a few days before Trump visit to the occupied territories claimed that an independent Palestinian state will never come to existence.
A couple of years earlier, Tzachi Hanegbi, the then head of the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, reacted to the possibility of unilateral declaration of the Palestinian state establishment by the Palestinian Authority, warning that any move to this way without coordination with Tel Aviv will prepare the ground for a new crisis.
Additionally, Tzipi Hotovely, the deputy foreign minister and a Knesset member for the ruling Likud party, a couple of days ago commented on the Trump’s proposal for peace between the Palestinians and the Israelis, saying: “Palestinian state is not our aim. We want to make peace with our neighbors. Because debating the statehood of Palestine not only fails to make the Palestinians happy but also endangers the existence of Israel.”
The former US Secretary of State John Kerry in a recording published by the Israeli Channel 10 on November 19 praised the Palestinian commitment to peace but spoke against Tel Aviv for opposing statehood of Palestine. “The majority of the cabinet currently in the Israeli government has publicly declared they are not ever for a Palestinian state,” he told the Israeli television.
It seems that Tel Aviv is intending to, in association with Saudi Arabia as its rising regional ally, impair the Egyptian state and then partition the Arab country. It has been working for several years in a bid to pave the way for materialization of its scheme for Egypt. An apparent example is the accelerated purchase of the Sinai lands by Palestinians with Israeli citizenship in past few years. By doing so, Tel Aviv on the one hand gets rid of the troublesome insecurity of the Peninsula and on the other hand will get the chance to drive the Palestinians towards settlement in the Egyptian territory.
The current driving force of the Israeli design is the terrorist groups, including ISIS, in the region. The Sinai has been neglected by the government especially after the 2011 revolution. At the same time, ISIS was recently militarily defeated in its strongholds Syria and Iraq. And very likely remnants of the terrorist group will head to the neighboring countries, with the Sinai presenting itself as a potential safe haven to them.
This situation is the favorable one of Saudi Arabia, the Israeli regime, and the US. They now highlight last week’s ISIS attack on the Egyptian mosque in the Sinai to pretend the terrorist group is far from dying despite its defeats in Syria and Iraq. This helps draw a picture of insecure Sinai to get a toehold there and realize their plans for the Egyptian territory.
It is not difficult to substantiate the claim that the US, the Israeli regime, and Saudi Arabia are allies to the ISIS. For example, the terrorist group has declined to even once attack the Israeli border forces despite the fact that it held some parts of Syria’s Quneitra border province for some time. On the contrary, the available documents suggest that they had the backing of Tel Aviv while operating in the area, with their war-wounded fighters receiving treatment at the Israeli hospitals, something Tel Aviv is not afraid to disclose.
The Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry this week reacted to the Israeli minister's comments on building a Palestinian state in Sinai, saying: “Egypt will not give even an inch of the Sinai Peninsula and will never allow anybody to seize it.” Despite these firm verbal stance, the Egyptian government is in tough times. Already experiencing troubles of all kind, especially after revolution of January 25, 2011, Egypt now at the time of presidency of Abdel Fattah el-Sisi is going through even worse security, economic, and other types of crisis.
If Cairo wishes to steer clear of its security conditions getting worse and repulse its land seizure foreign scheme, it will need to replace partnership with the sham US-led anti-terror coalition with cooperation with the alliance gathering together Russia and the regional Axis of Resistance which seeks thwarting the dangerous Western plans for fueling the crises in the region. The Syrian stage bears witness to the success of Russia-Resistance anti-terror policy.
