Sharm el Sheikh is a mecca for tourists and possibly a deposed president

By Rabbi Ben Kamin

DEL MAR, California– One of the incongruities (certainly less monumental than the cry for freedom that has transformed Egypt) has to do with apparent flight of deposed President Hosni Mubarak to “the Egyptian resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh.”

Sharm el-Sheikh, situated majestically on the Red Sea, a world-class getaway, was not much of anything until after the Israelis entered it in June 1967 and began its transformation.  The Israeli army, speared by an armada of tanks and tactical air strikes, had responded to a massive pan-Arab buildup of armaments and troops and the public declarations of Egypt, Syria, and other nations of Araby, that they were going to exterminate the Jewish state and “throw all the Jews into the sea.”

That is not what happened, as we well know.  In the lightning “Six Day War,” Israel swept the Sinai (for the second time), pushed the Syrians out of the Golan Heights, and pulverized the Jordanians in the West Bank.  Israel returned the Sinai peninsula to Egypt in 1979 and Israel remains the only party in the Middle East to have returned any land under any circumstances through all the years of this conflict.

Likely a bunch of fishermen, the only denizens of Sharm el-Sheikh prior to 1967, saw the dust rising as the Israelis approached that fateful June day in 1967.  They would become grateful:  Following the ceasefire, Israeli engineers, architects, and building workers began erecting hotels, marinas, nature field centers, promenades, restaurants, and diving clubs.  In almost no time, Sharm el-Sheikh became an international tourist mecca enjoyed by visitors from all over the globe.

It is a fairly safe bet that Mr. Mubarak is relaxing in a suite inside a hotel built by Israelis.  His cultivated tastes likely drew him to the stellar Naama Bay Hotel—the jewel in the crown of Israeli construction in the now magnificent resort.  The highway or landing strip he used was probably laid down by the same people whose ancestors built the pyramids.  He may have already enjoyed a stroll in the adjacent, breezy town of Ofira—completely created by Israeli urban visionaries.

Israel truly loved the entire Sinai and established a myriad of wildlife preserves and protected natural sanctuaries during its years of administration there.  The entire peninsula was treated as a kind of national park.  The wadis and caves and wells were restored and archeologically examined; the goats and ospreys of the region were monitored and cared for, along with all other forms of wildlife. 

Had not Israel been there for a while, it’s doubtful that Mr. Mubarak would have just gone fishing.

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Kamin is a freelance writer based in San Diego County