Sinai!

This is coolbert:

The recent Egyptian upheaval has created a new dynamic - - Israeli security on the southern border with Egypt, the Sinai desert, now in peril?

Lots of alarming headlines, courtesy of the DEBKAfile:

1. "Sinai is up for grabs: Friday, half a million rioters seized towns, oases in demos against Mubarak, Suleiman. Egyptian army, police posts came under RPG and automatic attack."

Rioting and insurrection more the case in the Sinai than to be found in other parts of Egypt. An armed resistance movement is taking place - - as we speak - - unreported!

2. "Thirty-two years of peace leave Israel militarily unprepared for the unknown on their 270-kilometer long southern border: an army trained and equipped only for the hostile fronts of Iran, Lebanon's Hizballah and Syria; no experience of desert combat; a dearth of intelligence about the Egyptian army and its commanders, and no clue to the new rulers' intentions."

The vaunted Israeli military has not faced a challenge from the Egyptian in almost forty years now. Peace with Egypt and the threat of attack from the Sinai or across the Suez canal has been a trifle for many decades, but now all that must be reconsidered?

"After signing peace with Egypt in 1979, Israel scrapped the combat brigades trained for desert warfare and stopped treating the Egyptian army as a target of military intelligence."

3. "Feb. 12 . . . [the Egyptians are] transferring 900 men of two 18th Division battalions to Sinai to rein in the lawless rampage raging there . . . Members of the Multinational Force policing Sinai under the peace treaty, mostly Americans and Canadians, have been locked in their camps for nearly three weeks under virtual Hamas and Bedouin siege."

That Force in the Sinai if not under direct attack is besieged in a way that was unheard of just a few weeks ago. And this HAS NOT BEEN REPORTED IN THE AMERICAN PRESS TO ANY EXTENT!

What a difference a month makes. The world is totally changed in a way that was unforeseen and in a troubling way too. Chaos, crisis management and instability are the watchwords!

Good luck Mr. President Obama!

coolbert.