Israel watches closely as Morsi strikes back

The Israeli press is shocked and awed by the Egyptian counter-terrorist operation launched early Wednesday morning in the northern Sinai Peninsula in retaliation for Sunday night’s Kerem Shalom attack.

President Mohammed Morsi ordered a multi-pronged assault by aerial, armored, and infantry troops on a terrorist encampment near the town of Sheikh Zowead. The five-hour operation left at least 20 terrorists dead, and 6 Egyptian soldiers and civilians injured, according to Maariv. Yedioth Ahronoth puts the toll at more than 25 dead terrorists, and adds that at least 10 terrorists were taken into custody.

Haaretz leads with Morsi’s firing of intelligence chief General Murad Muwafi in the wake of Sunday night’s intelligence failure that caused the deaths of 16 Egyptian soldiers. The paper reports that Morsi fired Muwafi and a number of other senior officials after learning that they had received intelligence warnings in advance of the attack. Morsi instated Mohammed Raafat Shehata as Egypt’s acting intelligence minister. Shehata, according to Haaretz, was head of Egypt’s intelligence service (“the equivalent of the Mossad,” the paper writes). Every paper notes that he orchestrated the Gilad Shalit release last October, and Israel Hayom and Maariv credit him with pictures of him and Shalit.

No paper fails to mention that this operation was the Egyptian air force’s first in Area C of the Sinai — closest to the Israeli border — since 1973.

Military historian Dr. Dani Asher writes in Maariv that in order for Morsi to impose public order, “he must force government orders on the Bedouin and their partners in the Sinai.” Unfortunately for the Bedouin, he says, their precarious financial situation on the Egyptian periphery has made them hired guns for “radical religious organizations that employ them with ‘the power of the dollar.'”

Asher posits that the Sinai operation — which must be prolonged and intelligence-based — is the “golden opportunity for the military to showcase its controlled power at the command of the government and for its sake.”

Dan Margalit takes an entirely different approach in Israel Hayom. He praises Morsi’s retaliatory strike on the terrorists that carried out the attack Sunday night, but is wary of Egypt’s return to the Sinai. Egypt attacking terrorist cells in the Sinai comes with “the price tag of the erosion of Egypt’s obligation vis-à-vis deployment of large forces in the Sinai.” Although Morsi got the green light from Jerusalem this time, Israel must make sure future military actions are also conducted with Israel’s consultation and not by Cairo’s will alone, he says.

Missiles and mausolea

Yedioth Ahronoth reports that Israel has received a warning from the United States that Saudi Arabia intends to shoot down IAF aircraft should they fly through its airspace en route to Iran. The paper writes that senior Israeli officials regard the announcement as a warning from the US not to launch a unilateral strike. The paper reminds readers that the US supplies Saudi Arabia with military equipment and aircraft. In the case of a multilateral operation against Iran’s nuclear facilities, Saudi Arabia may permit an Israeli overflight, Israeli experts estimate.

If you thought living space was cramped in Israel, space for the dead will get even more crowded. Maariv reports that massive multi-level mausolea are being constructed outside Tel Aviv to house the remains of the area’s booming population. The four to eight story structures are composed of squared concrete tubes, and the complex, from January, will be capable of storing up to 35,000 remains.

Haaretz reports that Syrian refugees describe the situation in Aleppo as a humanitarian crisis. Multitudes are fleeing the city, out of fear of bombardment by President Bashar Assad’s forces and massive gunfire by rebel forces. It reports a Syrian source saying that Assad’s army began a combined assault with tanks and air support on the city’s Salaheddine district.

Sports overhaul

Haaretz seems as disappointed as everyone else at Israel’s medal-less performance at the 2012 Olympic Games in London. It runs an editorial calling for a “sports revolution” in Israel to reignite sports education, sports consciousness, and sports culture.

Its editors attribute much of the Olympic team’s failings to a misappropriation, rather than a shortage, of sports funding in Israel. “Most of it goes to the most popular sports of soccer and basketball because they, and especially soccer, are a source of revenue,” it writes.

“For the price of a new soccer stadium, such as one opened six months ago in Petah Tikva, for example, dozens of gymnasiums serving thousands of children and teenagers could be built.”

As a consequence of this emphasis on prime time sports, “there is no sports education, no sports consciousness and no sports culture. A large proportion of high school graduates complete 12 years of education without participating in any sport, even as a pastime.”