Obama to start sending US F-16 fighter jets to Egypt – on Israel’s election-day
The Obama administration took a careful look at the political calendar before
announcing that the first four F-16 fighter planes - of the 20 approved in a $1
billion US foreign aid package to Egypt - would be delivered Jan. 22.
The announcement came Tuesday, Dec. 11, as Cairo and other Egyptian towns
were set for massive rival demonstrations for and against President Mohamed
Morsi’s decision to hold a referendum on a pro-Islamist constitution Saturday.
It therefore came in for rising criticism in Washington of the wisdom of sending
the jets to an unstable Egypt in the grip of a strong political
confrontation.
A broad range of opposition groups – pro-democratic, liberal, secular, women
and Christian – are demanding that President Morsi cancel the referendum. The
Muslim Brotherhood is mobilizing its supporters to counter this protest. As the
first anti-Morsi groups began gathering in Tahrir Square Tuesday, nine were hurt
by masked gunmen.
The opposition has clipped President Morsi’s wings once by making him annul
the near-dictatorial powers he gave himself. Forcing him to forego the
referendum would further undermine his authority.
So the president fought back by authorizing the military to secure state
buildings and arrest civilians in the incendiary days leading up to Saturday’s
referendum. debkafile’s
military sources report that Monday, six Egyptian Air Force F-16 fighters flew
symbolically over Cairo.
However, the 2nd and 9th Divisions stationed around Cairo stayed in their
barracks and the only uniformed personnel visible on the street were the
Republican Guard troops on permanent duty in the capital’s center.
By approving another 20 F-16 jets for Muslim-ruled Egypt on the day of the
competing demonstrations, President Obama showed the Egyptian people that he
stands foursquare behind President Morsi and that more US military aid is on the
way.
The first four jets will arrive in Egypt the day after Barack Obama’s Jan. 21
swearing-in for a second term as US president at the Capitol – and not by
chance. That date also coincides with Israel’s Jan. 22 general
election.
Obama is therefore using those warplanes as a signpost for the
Muslim-Arab Middle East – and the Israeli voter – to show them that he is
sticking unswervingly to his policy of support for the region’s Muslim
Brotherhood – and especially the Egyptian president - even if Morsi did slip up
by a grab for sweeping powers that alienated most of the opposition.
The US promise of new fighter planes was also a recommendation to the
Egyptian army to pick the right side and opt for President Morsi if they wanted
US military assistance to keep coming. Washington was also ready to consider
providing them with more high-tech items in addition to those already
supplied.
At all events, President Obama has made his choice, opting for
Egypt’s Islamists against the pro-democracy and liberal opposition – a choice
that he might have found embarrassing when he campaigned for his second
term.
Israel had a dark premonition of what was coming. Obama began laying
the background for his strong alignment with Islamist Egypt last month with the
dramatic announcement of a ceasefire in Cairo on Nov. 20, that was delivered
jointly by Morsi and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
By this
announcement – and by maneuvering Israel into abstaining from a ground operation
in the Gaza Strip to complete its air operation against Palestinian terrorist
targets – Obama pulled the Egyptian president out of his hat as a fully-fledged
international figure ready to jump to the top of his newly-minted Sunni Muslim
Middle East coalition. In addition to Egypt, its chosen members were to be
Turkey, Qatar and the Palestinian Hamas. Israel was to be a secret partner and
contributor of high-grade intelligence.
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu was ready to fit into the role cast Israel
by the US president. He therefore chose to hold back from a ground incursion in
the Gaza Strip and then agreed to the radical Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal
visiting Gaza last week.
His reward came at the same time as Washington’s
announcement of the 20 F-16 fighters for Egypt: The US has appropriated $650
million worth of ordnance to refill the Israeli arsenals depleted by the massive
Pillar of Defense air offensive in Gaza.
Under this deal, the US will supply
the Israeli Air Force with 6,900 satellite-guided “smart bombs;" 10,000 mixed
bombs - including 3,450 one-tonners and 1,725 bombs weighing 250 kilograms - as
well as two kinds of buster-bunkers - 1,725, GBU-39 bombs and 3,450
BLU-109s.
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