http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/10/world/middleeast

Nouvelles d’Orient 10/10/2013

Washington cuts Egypt aid despite intense Israeli lobbying -
Haaretz
By Jonathan Lis, Reuters and The Associated Press | Oct. 10, 2013
▻http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/1.551666

he United States’ decision to freeze military and economic aid to Egypt in the wake of a crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood came despite intense Israeli lobbying to maintain it, Haaretz has learned.
The U.S. on Wednesday announced that it would withhold deliveries of military hardware and cash assistance from Egypt’s military-backed government, pending progress on democracy and human rights.
Israel fears that cutting aid to Egypt could affect the peace treaty between the two countries, signed in 1979, which brought Cairo into Washington’s sphere of influence. Egypt is the second-largest recipient of U.S. aid after Israel.
In recent months, Israel has tried to convince the White House that punishing Egypt for the latest violence between the government and protesters was secondary to preserving the peace deal.
“As long as the American aid flows to Cairo, the Egyptian regime can ward off criticism against preserving the peace treaty with Israel,” Israeli officials told their U.S. counterparts.
Security establishment officials have maintained in recent weeks that cooperation with the Egyptian government should continue, despite the violence used against demonstrators. They say Jerusalem’s and Cairo’s common interest – fighting the Muslim Brotherhood – was much more important.
An Israeli cabinet member said Thursday morning that he believes that the decision would not affect Israel-Egypt relations.
“I hope this decision by the U.S. will not have an effect and won’t be interpreted as something that should have an effect,” Home Front Minister Gilad Erdan told Army Radio. Israel and Egypt, he said, maintain close ties and are cooperating.

Nouvelles d’Orient

Kassem CC BY-NC-SA 10/10/2013

▻http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/10/world/middleeast/obama-military-aid-to-egypt.html?hp&pagewanted=all&_r=1&

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But in a sign of how the administration is balancing its interests, senior officials said the United States would continue aid for counterterrorism programs as well as for Egypt’s efforts to protect its borders and secure Sinai, which has become a haven for extremists.
In announcing the decision, administration officials reiterated that the Egyptian military’s brutal repression of supporters of the ousted president, Mohamed Morsi, was not acceptable. But in explaining their specific steps, American officials sounded as if they were reaffirming a valuable relationship rather than delivering a rebuke.
“This is not meant to be permanent; this is meant to be the opposite,” a senior administration official said. “It is meant to be continually reviewed.” Still, the official added, “it’s fair to say that holding up hundreds of millions of dollars of assistance is a pretty clear message.”
Among the assistance that will be untouched, officials said, are programs to train and educate Egyptian military officials in the United States; the delivery of spare parts for many American-supplied weapons; and aid for health care, education and the promotion of business in Egypt.
The administration conveyed the news in a phone call on Wednesday from Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel to Gen. Abdul-Fattah el-Sisi, the army chief who led the ouster of Mr. Morsi. American officials portrayed the phone call as friendly.
The administration also continued to take the position that it was not obligated to classify Mr. Morsi’s ouster as a coup — a judgment that could have required a wholesale suspension in aid. The aid that the administration is holding back, officials said, could be restored if Egypt’s interim leaders take steps toward restoring democracy.
The announcement laid bare the underlying calculations that have shaped the United States’ effort to respond to the upheaval in Egypt ever since the crackdown began in July, leaving more than 1,000 people dead.
American officials have long doubted that cutting back military aid would have any effect on the behavior of Egypt’s military-backed government. The United States also does not want to jeopardize security interests in Egypt, notably counterterrorism efforts, the stability of the Sinai Peninsula and the 1979 peace treaty between Egypt and Israel.
Critics on Capitol Hill, however, said the administration was failing to send a signal to leaders who seized power in a coup, imposed martial law and carried out a systematic repression of the Islamist opposition.
“The administration is trying to have it both ways, by suspending some aid but continuing other aid,” said Senator Patrick J. Leahy, Democrat of Vermont, who is chairman of the subcommittee that appropriates aid to Egypt. “By doing that, the message is muddled.”
Some experts said the moves were meant to be more symbolic than substantive.
“This is not a signal to the generals to get their act together,” said Tamara Cofman Wittes, director of the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution. “It is an effort by the administration to say, ‘You did what you did, and we want to keep working with you, but there is some price to be paid for not listening to us.’ ”
“At the end of day,” she added, “it is a pretty symbolic price.”
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Kassem CC BY-NC-SA