Thursday 16 April 2009

Israel Insists It Gave Egypt Intel on “Network”


Israel Insists It Gave Egypt Intel on “Network”

16/04/2009 Israeli security officials continued Thursday to confirm that Egypt had received data on the so called Hezbollah cell in Egypt from Israeli intelligence services. The officials have called to make use of the “event” and strike an alliance between Israel and Egypt, since “the enemy is one:” Hezbollah and Hamas. Other Israeli observers have called not to show jubilance at the Cairo-Hezbollah row “so as not to push both sides into ending their conflict.”

“Egypt received intelligence on the Hezbollah cell from another state which is Israel,” Alon Ben David, an Israeli military analyst told Israeli media.

In an indication to Israel’s endeavor to make every use of the Egyptian campaign on Hezbollah, the head of the Israeli national security council retired general Uzi Diyan called on Tel Aviv to “take advantage of this strategic opportunity to make an in-depth study on the future of ties with (Egyptian President Husni) Mubarak’s regime and to strike an alliance between Israel and Egypt against the common enemy, Hezbollah, Hamas and the Islamic Jihad, who pose a similar threat on Egypt as they do on Israel. Egypt has found that its real enemy is not (Israeli FM Avigdor) Lieberman but it’s (Iranian President Mahmoud) Ahmadinejad.”
For his part, Chairman of the Knesset's Security and Foreign Affairs Committee Tzahi Hanegbi said that the “confrontation between Egypt and Hezbollah is in our interest and it confirms what we have been saying since a long time ago that the Iranian terror is not aimed at Israel and the US alone, but against moderate regimes in the Arab world. The Egyptians have perceived now that Iran and Hezbollah are the enemy.”

Israeli channel 1 commentator on Arab affairs Oded Granot said that “Egyptian authorities are pushing non-governmental groups in the country to raise the issue so as to label Hezbollah as a terror group to justify attacking it, and this is an unprecedented escalation.”

Haaretz had said that Egypt's resolute response to the so called “Hezbollah network” again points to the mutual interests because they both are “on the same boat.”
“Israel and Egypt are at the core of this matter. Both countries are considered "legitimate" targets in the eyes of Hezbollah and Iran. Iran and Hezbollah are Egypt's enemies no less than they are Israel's. It behooves us to remember this, even when it appears that Egypt is positioning itself on the other side of the divide,” Haaretz said.

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