By Walid Shoebat (Shoebat Exclusive)

Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi spoke and has set up an urgent meeting of Egypt’s top national security body on the same day ISIS militants released the video. So what will Egypt’s reaction be (we will explore that later).

Al-Sisi in his speech to the Egyptian people after the slaughter by ISIS for 21 Egyptians in Libya announced a seven-day mourning period in Egypt and said the country is “capable” in facing this threat and Egyptians are no longer permitted to travel to Libya, Al Arabiya News reported.

Al-Sisi added:

” … O steadfast people of Egypt.  On behalf of Egyptians, I send you my condolences, to the martyrs of terrorism. The pain of these families hurts us all, it hurts all Egyptians. This is a series of terrorism saddened and angered all of us. We will all unite to uproot and stop the spread of the poison of terrorism …”

Al-Sis vowed to respond:

“the time has come to respond to all these terrorists equally … Egypt, the nation that defeated terrorism in the past is capable through the steadfastness of its great people to defeat these”.

“Egypt will reserve in its own timing to respond, to punish these murderers and to destroy them completely … therefore I called for an urgent meeting of Egypt’s top national security body to follow the situation and consult on how to effectively carry out these proceedings”.

Al-Sisi said “He is suffering for all of Egypt .. and all the Egyptians feel sad, pain and anger”, pointing out that the vile terrorism is one of a “string of terrorism rampant in the whole world. “.

He emphasized that “Egypt and the whole world is fighting in a fierce battle with extremist ideology, stressing that these cowardly acts will not undermine Egypt” and that “Egypt is able to eliminate terrorism .. and Egypt defends humanity from this looming danger. ”

The speech was similar to what King Abdullah II of Jordan gave in which Sisi said that Egypt reserves the “right to respond in due time” and “a time that Egypt will specify”, explaining that he had called the National Defense Council for immediate meeting convening, and directed the government to stand by the families of martyrs to relieve their grief, and to impose strict enforcement to prevent the Egyptians from traveling to Libya and facilitate the return of Egyptians from Libya.

Al-Sisi will send his foreign ambassador to travel to New York to remind the international community of its responsibility and to take action because “what is happening in Libya is a threat to international peace and security everywhere”.

SO WILL EGYPT BEGIN A WAR ON ISIS?

Coinciding with the chaos in Egypt, there is a sharp political divide witnessed as well in Libya. In Libya there are two governments over its army and then we have the control of ISIS terrorists over a large part of Libyan territory. The numerous conversations over the past few days have sent conflicting statements about the possibility of imminent military intervention in Libya, especially on the part of Egypt.

Egypt rejects military involvement with the international coalition led by the U.S. which took a stand with the Muslim Brotherhood. The U.S. is now only fighting ISIS in Syria and Iraq while Egypt from some time ago is only cooperating in intelligence exchange. Libya has a huge border with Egypt which Muslim terrorists are using the border as a point of contact for coordination and transfer of weapons to carry out terrorist operations in Egypt.

Cairo suggested the idea of international intervention in Libya to stop the spread of ISIS and the evacuation of Egyptians from Libya, but this decision came from the Arab League and the Security Council.

But since Egypt is a participant in the international conference called by the United States on terrorism, so the Egyptian administration will seek during this occasion to prepare a strong move in the Security Council to unite the international community against ISIS in Libya.

The Egyptian situation is different from Jordan. Egyptian military and diplomats alike reject the idea of military intervention stressing that it would have dire consequences, because the large Egyptian community living in Libya (250,000) may be used as an scapegoat and sacrificed as result of this intervention as well as the difficulty to fight against gangs that do not have a constant presence on the ground.

Libya is an incubator base for Muslim terrorists who succeeded in penetrating inside the Libyan tribes, and attract their children to join ISIS, which is the reason for the rapid and advertised appearance by Ansar al-Sharia there. This mixture between al-Qaeda and the tribes confirms that any Egyptian gun firing toward the Islamists will be followed by a barrage of reprisals adopted by such tribes, which even the U.S. was  reluctant to push the idea for ground intervention following the bombing of its consulate in Benghazi and the assassination of its ambassador at the hands of terrorists.

Egyptian leadership therefore fears that a decision for a military intervention would deepen the problem more, and achieve what they are trying to avoid in Cairo that involved militarily outside its borders on multiple fronts of the confrontation.

Egypt is now surrounded by terror on every side. It is not only Libya, but Sinai with Ansar Bayt Al-Maqdis that joined ISIS. This means that Egypt is no longer facing only the Muslim Brotherhood, but a coalition of forces which holds the banner of political Islam which seeks to destroy the Egyptian, Iraqi and Syrian states.

The problem even compounds since the response also requires that the Egyptian people to be united with the army and police, which it is not. Egypt is divided between secularist and Muslim Brotherhood that is willing to cooperate with the Islamists worldwide and has huge support from the most powerful Muslim nation in the world: Turkey.

How can Egyptians mobilize on all levels, politically and media in order to even protect its army and to sustain its regime, especially that since Obama does not stand with the current government.

Now that Egypt faced a massacre, the U.S. would have no choice but to deal with kissing and making up with Egypt. That or the American Administration will have Hummus on its face.

What a waste of Hummus.