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Saturday, January 07, 2012

Report: Egypt demanding $500 billion from Israel for Sinai damage

Egyptian media is reporting that Egypt has prepared a 750 page document detailing Israel's liability for damage done to the Sinai while Israel controlled it from 1967 to 1982.

Rose El Youssef says that the report being given to the UN. It details how Israel supposedly ravaged the Sinai and hurt the Egyptian economy. It includes some 190 maps.

Among the ludicrous charges:

  • Israel destroyed the fishing industry
  • Israel destroyed 40% of the coral reefs
  • Israel took lots of oil from the Sinai
  • Israel stole 25% of the precious gems and marble, leaving worthless rocks behind
  • Israel took the entire contents of two gold mines, leaving nothing of value left
  • Israel disrupted international maritime trade through the Suez Canal, depriving Egypt of revenue
  • Israel killed 250,000 (!) Egyptians and injured a million more 
  • Israel looted all Egyptian banks in Gaza the day before the Six Day War, in the "biggest military robbery in modern history"
  • Israel stole priceless artifacts from Egypt's museums in the Sinai and gutted archaeological sites there
  • Israel emptied out 30% of the fresh water wells in the Sinai, and placed there pipes that continue to drain Egyptian water towards Israel today
  • Israel stole millions of tons of valuable sand, worth $49 billion in today's prices
  • Israel used the Sinai to research desert agriculture Israel benefits from the research but the Sinai desert lands were weakened as a result
  • Israel destroyed Sinai's wildlife and stole many exotic animals to make medicines being sold to Europe
  • Israel shot down Libyan Airlines Flight 114 (that is true, details at Wikipedia; the plane strayed into Israel accidentally and purposefully refused to acknowledge the IAF pilots' attempts to contact them)
  • And, of course, Israel destroyed Egypt's air force "for no reason" at the beginning of the 1967 war
You can't make this stuff up. 


I think if Israel managed to steal $50 billion worth of sand, then Egypt's cash flow problems are over - the rest of the sand in the Sinai must be worth trillions! Who needs oil when you have such valuable sand?