Why?
When Carter brokered the deal between Israel and Egypt, the Sinai presumably went back to Egypt.
So if he brokered a “peace deal” between them, why do we need “peacekeepers?”
If the Israelis were that distrustful of Egypt, then they should never have given it back.
This requires on simple answer:
It’s not the possibility of war between two nations but cowardly terroistic actions from radical factions within each nation.
The peace keepers will be sacraficed to keep peace between Israel and Egypt by giving these psyco’s something else to blow up.
For the record, I don’t think the “UN” is there. It’s a multinational military force, but not under the UN. I just saw an article about it (I think in Sunday’s Chicago Tribune, but maybe one of the magazines that comes in the Sunday paper) noting that for various reasons (the article didn’t go into it), the UN was not involved.
I seem to recall a British Prime Minister once securing “peace in our time” with Nazi Germany. Interestingly enough, that peace later needed to be enforced by a not insignificant armed conflict.
If nations had throughout history kept the treaties that they had made, this would be a far different world.
The best lack all conviction
The worst are full of passionate intensity.
*
I think there might be a fallacy inherent in the OP. I can easily envision a situation where enemies who decide to make peace could say something like, “And just to show how sincere I am, I even volunteer to allow independent watchers look over my shoulder and make sure I don’t pull any funny stuff when you’re not looking.”
I think that pretty much nails it. Just because one particular government employee (albeit the highest one at the time) says there will be peace doesn’t guarantee anything for the next government that comes in. And with that volatile region, I think observers/peacekeepers probably aren’t a bad idea at all.
I’ve never even heard of there being UN Peacekeepers in Sinai! This may show how out of it I am, but I spent last year in Israel, and took a little weekend trip to Sinai. I passed through the border quite easily, told Egyptians that I was living in Israel, that I was an American Jew, saw no UN people, and encountered no hostility or problems whatsoever (unless you count Egyptian taxi drivers…anyone complaining about American drivers in the Pit should go to Egypt). My roundabout point is that my guess is that any UN mission in Sinai is mostly symbolic.
~Kyla
“You couldn’t fool your mother on the foolingest day of your life if you had an electrified fooling machine.”
Once again, it’s not the UN. And it’s not just symbolic. The article I read noted that some of America’s most elite troops get sent over for Sinai duty.