July 4, 2009
Steve Collins
An Israeli missile submarine was permitted by Egypt to transit Egypt’s Suez Canal as part of an Israeli military naval deployment. No Israeli naval ship has transited the Suez Canal in four years, so this is an important development. Egypt allowed the Israeli submarine, a Dolphin-class, state-of-the-art submarine made in Germany, to transit the canal openly and on the surface. The first link below, from the Jerusalem Post, observes (quite correctly I think) that Egypt was sending “a message to Iran” that it will cooperate with the Israelis in any necessary future actions against Iran. Clearly, it is a “demonstration of strengthening ties between Egypt and Israel.” The Israeli subs are widely believed to carry both conventional- and nuclear-tipped cruise missiles which could be unleashed against Iran if they are positioned in the Arabian Sea off the Iranian coast. Egypt just “told” Iran that the Israelis will have Egyptian help if that becomes necessary. The second link below give a photo montage of the Israeli Dolphin-class submarine.
My previous blogs have opined that the incomprehensible Mideast policy of the Obama administration is driving the Israelis to seek allies other than the USA and it is also driving Egypt and the Sunni Arabs into a corner where they may seek not just a peace, but an alliance, with the Israelis against the Iranian Shiites. Egypt and the Sunni Arabs have no nuclear bombs. Iran is close to having them. If Egypt and the Sunni Arabs make an alliance with the Israelis, it would vault the Sunni Arabs into a position of great strength against Iran as they would come under the protection of the Israeli nuclear umbrella. Given the profound inconsistency of the Obama administration’s policies in the Mideast with that of previous GOP and Democrat administrations (Obama has cozied up to old enemies and given the cold shoulder to old friends), it is likely that no one in the Mideast (or world?) now knows whether it can trust Obama and the USA to honor any previous commitments by any US President. This forces the Mideast nations to find an independent way to their own security without relying on a now-unpredictable USA.
Never underestimate the truth of the maxim: “The enemy of my enemy is my friend.” The Sunni Arabs and the Israelis have a common enemy (Iran) that is growing in power and it recently showed that it has no reluctance to rig elections and brutalize its own people who protested such a sham election. Iran’s bellicosity and the confused foreign policy of the USA is currently driving the Sunni Arabs, Egypt and the Israelis together.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1246443708481&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
http://neoconexpress.blogspot.com/2009/07/cool-photos-and-video-of-dolphin-class.html
