Egyptian Arrest Of Author Of Eilat Terror Attack In Sinai Proves Israel Lied In Blaming Gazans – OpEd

By

Despite reams of nonsense published by the likes of Eli Lake and Avi Issacharoff in the Washington Times and Haaretz respectively, regurgitating IDF talking points that the Eilat terror attacks were planned and orchestrated by the Popular Resistance Committees in Gaza–Idan Landau, Alex Fishman and I knew otherwise.  We said the attacks were carried out by Egyptian militants based in Sinai.  We said that killing 30 Gazans merely because the Israeli government couldn’t take revenge on Egypt and needed to take revenge on someone, was criminal.  Issacharoff even sneered at my talking of this as a potential war crime.  Well, who’s sneering now?

Egypt announced today that it had arrested the ringleader of the Eilat attack…in El Arish.  Precisely where we knew the attack originated–in the Sinai.  The alleged mastermind of the assault committed similar terror attacks in that region.  There is no mention he has any connections to Gaza, though I suppose it may be possible that he might be involved in the lucrative smuggling trade between Egypt and Gaza.  Congratulations to Alex Fishman and Idan for sticking with this story till the bitter end and not giving an inch to the lies of the Israeli military-intelligence apparatus.  There may once have been an IDF that believed in tohar neshek and fought justly to defend its country (though many would disagree).  Today’s IDF is a hollow shell of its former self.

You’ll recall that the IDF also invaded (yes, that’s what it’s called when armed soldiers cross into the territory of a neighboring country and kill its police) Egypt in hot pursuit of the attackers and killed five Egyptian policemen as a result.  Barak was forced to publicly apologize for that gaffe though Israel at first resisted mightily.  It did that as part of a deal to free Ilan Grappel, an Israeli-American accused by Egypt of spying.

I haven’t seen any signs of Haaretz or Avi Issacharoff eating crow over their mangling of this story.

This article published in Tikun Olam

Richard Silverstein

Richard Silverstein is an author, journalist and blogger, with articles appearing in Haaretz, the Jewish Forward, Los Angeles Times, the Guardian’s Comment Is Free, Al Jazeera English, and Alternet. His work has also been in the Seattle Times, American Conservative Magazine, Beliefnet and Tikkun Magazine, where he is on the advisory board. Check out Silverstein's blog at Tikun Olam, one of the earliest liberal Jewish blogs, which he has maintained since February, 2003.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *