Egyptian Media Airs Threats Against Israel After Smotrich’s Sinai Warning

Egyptian media channels widely aired threats against Israel, Tel Aviv, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu this week as they reacted angrily to Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich’s warning Monday that Israel would destroy Sinai if Egypt attacked Israel, delivered during an interview with the haredi (ultra-Orthodox) news site Hashtiblach.

“What will cause Egypt not to attack us? They know that if they attack, there will be no Sinai,” Smotrich told the channel. “It won’t happen again. There is no [Menachem] Begin.”

Then-prime minister Menachem Begin made peace with Egypt by signing the historic Egypt-Israel Peace Treaty on March 26, 1979. Under the treaty, Israel agreed to withdraw its forces and civilians from the Sinai Peninsula in phases, while Egypt regained full sovereignty over the territory, and the two countries established security arrangements governing their forces in the peninsula.

“At least half of Gaza under tomorrow morning, and the same thing with Lebanon, up to 8, 9, [or]12 kilometers that are ours. Guys, it won’t be [yours], you’re not coming back. Why? Because you started with us, and that’s the price of war,” Smotrich said.Continue reading this article on jpost.com