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IDF Military Intelligence Veteran Looks at the Middle East

(Jerusalem Post) Yaakov Katz interviews Maj. Gen. (res.) Amos Gilead - In 1999, Maj. Gen. (res.) Amos Gilead warned the IDF General Staff and the Israeli Cabinet that Yasser Arafat was plotting a terrorist onslaught against Israel. A few months later, in October 2000, the second intifada erupted. Looking back, Gilead called Arafat a "mega-terrorist" and said it was a mistake to negotiate with "someone who surrounded himself with mass murderers." His assessment was based on countless hours he had spent with Arafat. "I am sure that he wanted to destroy us," Gilead said. As Israel's point man on Egypt as head of the Defense Ministry's Political-Military Bureau for the last 13 years, Gilead said, "Obama's call on Mubarak to step down [in 2011] was a major mistake. You cannot force a culture in this region. You will not get democracy. You will get evil and dark forces like the Muslim Brotherhood, a movement established in 1928 which wants to create a Sunni empire in which Israel cannot exist." When Gen. Sisi overthrew then-President Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood, the Egyptian defense minister "saved Egypt, the Arab world and the wider region from a nightmare." Gilead dismissed predictions that King Abdullah of Jordan is weak. He said that throughout almost all of his father King Hussein's tenure, people also predicted that he would fall, but Hussein ruled from 1952 until 1999. What people fail to recognize is that the tribes in Jordan are united and the people respect and admire the king and his father, both believed to be descendants of the Prophet Muhammad.
2017-04-07 00:00:00
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