Missiles to Egypt -- In Whose Interest? Editorial Connecticut Jewish Ledger December 14, 2001 "A stable and prosperous Egypt is in our interest, while an arms race between Israel and Egypt is not... The State Department is .. following a pattern of escalating the level of arms sales to Egypt, which in turn will mean escalating the number of arms sales and the sophistication to Israel." --Rep. Tom Lantos (D-CA), The Washington Post, Nov. 27, 2001 It's difficult to bring into focus all the threats Israel faces because there are so many and they are so diverse. Today, Israel is preoccupied with the terror of the suicide bomber, punctuated by the killing of civilians on the country's highways. Tomorrow's threat includes the weapons of mass destruction from places like Iraq, Libya and Iran with probable nuclear, biological and chemical capability. Syria peers down into the Galilee from behind the Golan and Hezbollah probes for weaknesses on the now too-close Lebanon border. But the most ominous threat right now to Israel comes from Egypt. When Israel forfeited its strategic depth in the Sinai in exchange for a piece of paper that Egypt now admits was merely a convenience, Egypt was a weak, recently defeated Soviet style army. But in the ensuing 20 years, Egypt has, with massive U.S. help, grown into a lavishly armed and well-trained force that Israel will be hard pressed to deal with. Since the 1979 Camp David accords, Egypt has spent more than $45 billion in U.S. aid on her military. This impoverished nation without an enemy in sight or a threat on her border has devoted the funds the United States gives her to equip her military instead of feed or educate her people. While a boon to U.S. arms producers, these sales have wreaked havoc to the qualitative advantage in weaponry promised Israel by those very same Camp David agreements. In fact, Egypt's most recent purchase of North Korea's No Dong intermediate range missile translates into U.S. taxpayers funding a North Korean weapons program. This missile allows Egypt to wreak havoc inside Israel proper from launching pads deep inside Egyptian territory. Here is an example of some of the weapon systems that the outgoing Clinton administration lavished on an already formidable Egypt. * F-16 upgrades providing an advanced fire control radar system that some say surpasses Israel's. *KEWA-1 armor piercing shells made of depleted uranium that maximizes the effectiveness of Egypt's anti-tank capability. *Another 200 Abrams tanks, our best, and 14 more F-16D fighter aircraft. The top of the line. One startling comparison suffices to portray the new balance of power between Israel and Egypt. In 1973, Egypt fielded a Soviet- styled infantry army with about 1,700 low quality T-54 and T-55 Russian tanks. Today, Egypt has around 4,000 tanks, including 600 of the highest-quality U.S. Abrams as well as number of other formidable U.S. models. More important, U.S. communications and tactics were provided with the training that came with the hardware. And that's just the armor. Similar qualitative and quantitative comparisons can be made for the air force, the navy as well as Egypt's missile and artillery capabilities. There is no reasonable strategic explanation for the U.S. arming of Egypt to the extent that we have. Our weapons producers look for cash customers wherever they can find them, and Egypt, with its yearly infusion of U.S. aid, falls into this category. But this is not a strategic consideration. It would seem though, that today, in light of all that has happened, strategic concerns should again be given their proper priority. Egypt is a country, remember, that said no to allowing the wounded USS Cole through the Suez Canal as it limped home for repair. Egypt has been one of the most obstructionist factors in the search for peace in the Middle East. Egypt's government-controlled media is filled with the vitriol of anti-American and anti-Semitic propaganda. Egypt behaves more like an enemy than a friend in the UN and other world-wide bodies. Egypt is only a conditional partner in our war on terror. But we continue to enhance Egypt's offensive capability even when Egypt's leaders tell us that her military buildup is not benign. The U.S. has armed a totalitarian regime in a volatile region and in doing so threatens the existence of our democratic ally. We do this to our own detriment. The Harpoon The arms package currently being pushed by this Administration on Congress includes an advanced Harpoon Block II surface-to-surface missile. Shoshana Bryen of the Jewish Institute of National Security Affairs(JINSA) says that these missiles "open a sea-front against Israel and ...materially change Israel's qualitative military edge." The Harpoon would be able to launch its shipboard missiles at coastal targets in Israel from Egyptian territorial waters. Israel has the strong backing of both Congress and the American people, but there has been no consistent leadership available to thwart these ongoing weapons sales to Egypt. The lone voice in the House about this sale is Rep. Tom Lantos with Sen. Joe Biden (D-Del.) the spokesman for sanity on the Senate side. Republicans might be silent on this deal because Majority Leader Trent Lott's Mississippi is the place where the Harpoon is built. Meanwhile, Powell and the State Department is busy pushing this package. Among Jewish groups, only JINSA has been heard from, and the vaunted super lobby, AIPAC, has chosen the method it's used for the last 20 years in fighting the arming of Egypt-- quiet diplomacy. It's failed then as it's bound to fail now. For its part, Israel continues to think that its past superiority is sufficient to deter today's threats and has acquiesced to the State Department's cajoling about opposing these weapons sales into the region. Weapons continue to flow towards Egypt even though she is already a formidable threat to Israel's existence. Neither of Connecticut's senators are involved in this fight, and no one in the CT Congressional delegation has stood up alongside Lantos to stop this sale. We urge them to do so. Egypt is a real and present danger to Israel and if supporting democracies throughout the world is one of our primary goals, this sale is perverse. It serves no American interest and just further destabilizes the region. The names and phone numbers of the Connecticut Congressional Delegation are included below in hopes that you will get involved in this issue by communicating your thoughts to them. We'd like Connecticut's Senators and Representatives to lead on this issue. Sen. Joseph Lieberman-phone: (202) 224-4041; write: 706 Hart Senate Office Bldg. Washington, D.C. 20510. Sen. Chris Dodd- phone: (202) 224-2823; write: 448 Russell Senate Bldg., Washington, D.C, 20510. Rep. John Larson-phone: (202) 225-2265; write: 1419 Longworth Bldg. Washington, D.C. 20515. Rep. Rob Simmons-phone: (202) 225-2076; write: 511 Canon Bldg. Washington, D.C. 20515. Rep. Rosa DeLauro-phone: (202) 225-3661; write: 436 Canon Bldg. Washington, D.C. 20515. Rep. Christopher Shays-phone: (202) 225-5541; write: 1126 Longworth Bldg. Washington, D.C. 20515. Rep. James Maloney-phone: (202) 225-3822; write: 1213 Longworth Bldg. Washington, D.C. 20515. Rep. Nancy Johnson-phone: (202) 225-4476; write: 2113 Rayburn Bldg. Washington, D.C. 20515.