|
Trending Topics
|
Egypt Surprised by IS Attacks in Sinai
(Jerusalem Post) Zvi Mazel - The Egyptian security services had no advance warning of a major concerted operation that must have involved considerable planning. Their surprise was such that soldiers reacted sluggishly and only after having suffered significant losses. The Egyptian Army lacks special forces trained to fight in the desert and mountainous regions where terrorists are sheltering. Furthermore, the terrorists are aided and abetted by the local Bedouin population, neglected for decades by the Cairo government. Egyptian President Sisi is not getting any help from the U.S. or Europe, both still calling him a military dictator who forcibly ejected a democratically elected president. Neither understood that Muslim Brotherhood President Morsi was about to set up an Islamic dictatorship. The writer, a fellow of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, is a former ambassador to Romania, Egypt, and Sweden.