OTTAWA DAILY TIMES: The Forgotten Peacekeepers
THE FORGOTTEN PEACEKEEPERS Soldiers in the Sinai Peninsula still keep the peace between Egypt and Israel BY KANE FARABAUGH for the Daily Times SHARM EL SHEIK, EGYPT - Since 1948, the state of Israel and the Arab Republic of Egypt have fought five wars over a piece of land that is both bridge and barrier between the continents of Africa and Asia. The Sinai Peninsula, home to Mount Sinai where it is said Moses received the Ten Commandments from God, now belongs to Egypt, but the peace between Egypt and Israel belongs, in part, to an eleven nation peacekeeping effort known as the Multinational Force and Observers (MFO). “We are NOT the U.N.,” says Joint Task Force Sinai Public Affairs officer, U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel Dave Johnson. The Treaty of Peace, signed by Egypt and Israel in 1979, divides the Sinai Peninsula into four zones (A,B,C, and D). After a phased Israeli withdrawal from the Sinai, the M-F-O stood up in 1982 to help both countries stick to the guidelines in their peace a...