Egypt’s Ambassador to the PA (Palestinian Authority) Yasser Othman told the PA Maan news agency last week that Israel is planning to take over Sinai. He based this statement on recent remarks by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, adding “his tone” made this evident as Israel is seeking to show the world that Egypt is incapable of adequately monitoring the border.

Othman adds that additional forces have been stationed along the border to make certain it is secure, to thwart the Israeli takeover plan.

It would appear that the ambassador was referring to recent remarks by both the prime minister and Defense Minister Ehud Barak that the situation along the Egyptian border is “very troubling”.

Othman added that since the overthrow of President Hosni Mubarak, relations between Cairo and Jerusalem have declined. Echoing the same philosophy, Egyptian Prime Minister Essam Sharaf has said a peace deal with Israel was not “sacred” and could be changed for the benefit of peace or the region.

Conspicuously absent from the remarks of the ambassador and prime minister was the August 2011 terror attack in Israel, near Eilat, which claimed a number of lives. They failed to address the fact that some 20 heavily armed terrorists crossed into southern Israel from Sinai without begin detected by Egyptian security forces.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)