Egypt's Foreign Minister: Israel Is 'the enemy to a sister Arab country'

Ahmed Aboul Gheit. AFP

The Israeli president has recently accused - without evidence - the Syrian government of handing over Scud missiles to the Lebanese party-cum-militia Hezbollah.

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Syria, Hezbollah and Lebanon have denied this claim. Lebanon's prime minister has compared it to the unfounded claims around non-existent Iraqi WMDs. Hezbollah has itself stated is has no such weaponry.

And Egypt has recently added its voice to the fore and called the Israeli claims "laughable".

Why would Israel lie about this? Because it wants to, first, alienate Syria from the United States. Part of the Israeli propaganda is to tarnish anything Arab and to make Americans fear Arabs as radical enemies. Israel no doubt enjoyed the manner in which the Bush administration treated Syria. In fact, Israel's own then prime minister Arial Sharon personally lobbied members of Congress to pass sanctions against Syria which they subsequently did. Syria was branded an enemy nation, for all intents and purposes, by the Bush administration which removed the U.S. ambassador in 2005. Seeing an adversary treated in such a manner was all smiles to the Israelis.

But Obama has sought a rapprochement with Syria which is troubling for Israel because 1) any close U.S. relations with Arab nations are always troubling for Israel since it worries that the U.S. may seek to balance its current unconditional support for Israel with concern for its relations with Arab nations and 2) Israel worries that a close U.S.-Syrian relationship would lead to U.S. pressure for Israel to sign a peace treaty with Syria and be forced to leave the occupied Syrian Golan Heights.

So on the eve of the solidification of that rapprochement - when the U.S. was about to send a new ambassador to Syria - Israel's president made this statement in an effort to undermine, if not kill, the U.S. effort to repair relations with Syria.

And it worked. The Obama administration is now delaying sending the ambassador for Senate confirmation and has predictably accepted Israeli claims as worthy.

Israel hoped this trick would also work on Europeans, but they are too smart by more than half to fall for that.

Another Israeli devious scheme to create U.S.-Arab tensions and divisions for its own benefit.

The second reason Israel made up this farce is to have a pretext to go to war against Lebanon. Israel has been preparing for another war since 2006 when it failed to defeat Hezbollah then. Israel hopes this will provide it with international support to launch an attack.

The Egyptian government has recently come to the defense of Lebanon:

Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit referred to Israel as an "enemy" during a press conference in Beirut on Saturday.

Aboul Gheit said concerns expressed by Israel and the United States on the alleged transfer of Scud missiles from Syria to Hezbollah were "ridiculous".

"Anyone who is familiar with the (Scud) missile knows that it cannot be smuggled or concealed," he said.

Following talks with Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri, Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri and Foreign Minister 'Ali Al-Shami, Aboul Gheit was asked whether he was visiting Beirut in order to convey a warning from Israel.

The Egyptian minister said in response that the purpose of his trip was not to relay messages "from the enemy to a sister Arab state."

Aboul Gheit also said Cairo would stand by Lebanon and Syria in case they were attacked.

But Egypt - which is submissive to the Israeli government - would not make this claims in English. And this government supported the war against Gaza and this foreign minister's name was then altered by some Arab intellectuals to mean 'The Traitor' or something like that.

If a war happens, do not hold you breath on Egypt coming to the defense of Lebanon.