"The Palestinian Side of the Suez Canal"

I found the following in Hansard, the record of Bitish Parliamentary debates. The referred to Milner Mission was to make recommendations for the future relationship between Egypt and England after World War One when Egypt came under British martial law when a temporary Protectorate was declared. Its recommendations were to end that status and the negotiation of a treaty. It was published in February 1921.

The debate was held on March 14, 1922.

The following extract is from the words of John Mills. In 1923, he served as Parliamentary Private Secretary to the pro-Zionist Josiah Wedgwood.

Mills make the point that Egypt really never was any part of the British Empire and in doing so, makes reference to the concept that Palestine should extend well into Sinai, right up to the Suez Canal:

This point is specifically alluded to on page 6 of the Milner Report. I am quoting from the Report of the Special Mission, and it says: It appears to be frequently assumed in current talk and writing in this country that Egypt is part of the British Empire. That is not, and never has been, the case. That is most explicit, and to gentlemen of military experience who talk to us about the tactical value of this or that part of a country, I would suggest that on the Palestinian side of the Suez Canal you have a population who at the moment are welcoming British occupation, and, under the pledge given to the Zionists, it makes it a desirable circumstance for the transfer of the garrison; that in itself is an alternative place where troops can be kept if the Suez Canal is deemed to be such a dangerous part of our communication. Personally I think that the international pact which guaranteed the international character of the Suez Canal makes a very large number of these assertions valueless even if they ever contained some, amount of value. Having regard to the changed circumstances in the East, having regard to the changed circumstances on the Palestinian side of the Canal, we are justified in asking this Government and its military advisers to consider the alternative garrison for the troops, if they are necessary, in order that we may in fact as well as in word carry out this generation-long pledge to the Egyptian people.

Later in the debate Colonel Wedgewood notes:

Indeed, I think it is worth considering whether it would not be possible even to have the troops on the Eastern bank of the Canal instead of on the Western bank, provided that the Palestine-Egyptian frontier were shifted from the Akaba line up to the Suez Canal. That shift in the frontier would put us on the Suez Canal, in a position where we could adequately protect that Canal, with a base in the mandated country of Palestine, where we should be permanently on the spot to protect the Canal and look after our interests.

He is referring to the October 1, 1906, Separating Administrative Line between the Ottoman province of the Hejaz, the governorate of Jerusalem and the Sinai Peninsula which was agreed upon, following nine months of military action and diplomatic activity which nearly brought the British and the Ottoman empires to the verge of war. See here. 

It began in January that year when British forces from Egypt to build up a small post for the Egyptian border police at Umm Rashrash (now Eilat) in Naqb al-Aqaba. Their presumption was that "Naqb el-Akaba... is well within the frontier line settled upon between Turkey and Egypt" after the Wedj incident. 

Taba was then occupied by Turkish troops.

Oddly enough, one of the elements involved in the background to all this dispute was an

"1892 incident [that] was caused, according to Cromer, by the suspicions of the Sultan with regard to planned Jewish settlement on the shores of Aqaba: ‘...The result was that the Firman laid down the Egyptian frontier as drawn from Suez to El-Arish. The peninsula of Sinai, which had been administered by the Khedives of Egypt for the last forty years, would thus have reverted to Turkey... ’

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We Didn't Hand Over Sinai?

Didn't Israel hand over Sinai to Egypt to the last grain of holy sand?

Maybe not?

Prominent Egyptian Politician: Camp David Accord No More Valid


TEHRAN (FNA)- A leading Egyptian political activist underlined the necessity of revising Camp David Accord between Cairo and Tel Aviv, stressing that the deal is no more valid.

"Camp David is annulled and has no credit and value," member of Egypt's
National Association for Change George Ishaq told FNA in Cairo.

"Since the Zionist regime attaches no respect to the accord and in order to
reclaim Egypt's sovereignty over the Sinai region…the agreement should be reviewed and revised," underlined Ishaq, a former coordinator of Kefaya Movement, a political movement opposing Hosni Mubarak's regime.

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From the Embassy in Cairo to the Sinai Beaches

Translated from this article in Hebrew:-

"Remove the Naked Israeli Women from Sinai"

The details:-

Party founder and secretary-general of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt said: "We cannot be at our beaches in Sinai where there are naked women wearing bikinis. We must protect our youth from temptation...

Dr. Saad Allachtatni, founder and secretary general of the 'Liberty and Justice faction of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, announced this week at a conference of heads of Egyptian tourism, that his party demands to enact laws to limit the tourist beaches. "Can not be at our beaches in Sinai, where there will be naked women wearing bikinis," said Dr. Allachtatni. "We must protect the Egyptian youth, from temptation."

The Muslim Brotherhood explained this week that there are sites with huts between Nuweiba to Taba, such as Ras - Satan, Almhs and Bir Sawyer, where many Israeli tourists spend time. They say they do not intend to hurt tourism on the beaches of Sharm E-Sheikh hotels which attract every year millions of tourists from all over the world.

Sorry, no pictures.

How's that for sand in your eyes?


(k/t=J)
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Terrorists Are Worse Than Sudanese Infiltrators?

Deputy Minister for Health Yaako Litzman asks, in Hebrew:

if the border is wide open for infiltrators from Sudan, is it a wonder terrorists can get through?

And I add:

is any responsibility for Thursday's events to be attributed, in any way, to the "human rights groups" and other organizations that wage a campaign of sympathy for the infiltrators, the "persecuted ones", "assylum seekers", from the Sudan and other countries, the prostitutes/sex slaves (willing or not), who come across Israel's Sinai border and are cuddled and protected and made heroes?   Journalists that accompanied them coming across?

Could, perhaps, the solidarity they generated slowed down in the years previously the building of the fence there?

Think about that.

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They Saw It Coming

Friends of mine:

1)  Caroline Glick:

Another problem with the deal that Israel made with Sadat the dictator is demonstrated by the current unrest in the Sinai. In 1977 Egypt's was the strongest regime in the region. So when Israel thought about the threat emanating from Egypt, it thought about the Egyptian army barreling toward Beersheba. That is why the Egyptian military was barred from operating in the Sinai.

The last thing on Israel's mind in 1978 was the Bedouin tribes in the Sinai. Back then Sinai's Bedouin were pro-Israel and bitterly disappointed when Israel withdrew. But a lot has changed since then.

Over the past 20 years or so, the power of Egypt's central authority in its hinterlands has weakened. The strength of the Bedouin has grown. And over the past decade or so, the Bedouin of Sinai, like the Bedouin from Saudi Arabia to Jordan to Israel have become aligned with the Muslim Brotherhood and its al Qaida and Hamas spinoffs.

The Bedouin attacks on Egyptian police and border guard installations in al Arish and Suez over the past three weeks are an indication that the fear of a strong state, which was so central to Israel's thinking in during the peace process with Egypt, is no longer Israel's most urgent concern. Transnational jihadists in the Sinai are much more immediately threatening than the Egyptian military is. But the peace treaty - signed with a military dictator -- provides neither Israel nor Egypt with tools to deal with this threat.

2) Barry Rubin (k/t=DG)

Another problem is border security. Again, we are told that it is in the interest of Egypt, especially the army, to avoid having terrorists cross the border into Israel. Yet similar logic has often proven mistaken in previous, similar cases. With junior officers and soldiers sympathizing with Islamism or radical nationalism, the orders of the generals back in Cairo might not be followed with a high degree of discipline. There are already reports of al-Qaida planning to infiltrate into the Sinai to launch cross-border attacks.

And he referred to this JP article which included this:

According to information obtained by Israel, Iran has been working to build new infrastructure in the Sinai that can be used to smuggle advanced weaponry in large quantities into the Gaza Strip.

“Iran wants to take advantage of the current anarchy in Egypt and establish a stronger foothold in Gaza,” a senior defense official said. “They are building new capabilities, upgrading smuggling mechanisms and studying the new military presence there to see how it will affect them.”

 
 

Pays to read me and my friends.
 

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Watch Out: Egyptians Leave Dead Sheep in the Water

And that draws sharks.

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Canadian Dies and Frenchmen As Well

A plane crashed in a remote mountainous area of the Sinai desert Sunday, killing half of France's small contingent to a multinational peacekeeping force in Egypt as well as one Canadian peacekeeper.

The Department of National Defence in Ottawa identified the Canadian as Cpl. Benoit Chevalier, an air-traffic controller from Three Wing Bagotville in Quebec.

Chevalier, 25, had been part of the multinational peacekeeping mission in El Gorah since April 5, a Saguenay, Que., newspaper reported.

The Canadian-made DeHavilland DHC-6 Twin Otter plane tried to make an emergency landing on a highway in the Sinai Peninsula's barren mountains but clipped a truck and crashed nearby, said a spokesman for the Multinational Forces and Observers.

The crash killed eight of the 15-member French peacekeeping contingent as well as Chevalier and destroyed the mission's sole fixed-wing aircraft, said MFO spokesman Normand St. Pierre.

The peacekeeping force is an independent international organization created by Egypt and Israel to monitor their border in the Sinai after the 1979 Camp David peace accords. Canada is among the countries that contribute soldiers to the force.

Truck driver Ahmad Attallah told The Associated Press he was driving his vehicle, which was carrying car windshields, on the highway en route to Jordan when he heard something slam into the top of his truck.

"Then I looked up and saw a small plane with a trail of flames and smoke flying at a low altitude and then it disappeared and I heard an explosion," he said, adding that he jumped from the truck after it caught fire. He was uninjured.

Attallah's cousin, Hilal Shehata Mohammed, was driving another truck nearby when he saw the plane's wing hit his cousin's truck.

"We saw the plane coming down and was shaking and the pilot seemed to be trying to use the highway as a runway but the wing of the plane hit the first truck and it caught on fire," he said.

Source.