Without serious aforethought, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak waved through another 3,000 Egyptian troops into North Sinai, raising their number to 4,000 and virtually scrapping the key demilitarization clause of the 1979 peace treaty. No conditions were laid down and no timeline or operational limits set, debkafile's sources report.  Israel asked the military rulers in Cairo – directly and through Washington - to deny Iranian warships passage through the Suez Canal – but was ignored.

The 25 generals who assumed power in Egypt last Friday have informed Washington that the transition to democratic elections and government would take at least a year or two. They also challenged the Obama administrations' plan to bring the Muslim Brotherhood into government as a prescription for civil war.

The heads of Egypt's military were almost as reluctant to step into power as Mubarak was to leave. The names of four generals are tentatively mentioned as Egypt's next ruler – but the junta would pull his strings.

The US and Israel made the same mistake of using Intelligence Minister Omar Suleiman as their single line of information on Egypt - and were caught napping. They are still woefully wanting on Egyptian political and military intelligence.

Twenty-four hours after Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said the Egyptian upheaval had no military connotations for Israel, the Iranian frigate Alvand and cruiser Kharg transited the Suez Canal on their way to Syria.  Wednesday night, Feb. 16, their passage was termed "a provocation" by Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman. In Beirut, Hizballah leader Hassan Nasrallah said he was looking forward to Israel going to war on Lebanon because then his men would capture Galilee.

DEBKA-Net-Weekly in its latest issue out last Friday offered a blow-by-blow account of the "democratic revolution" which brought Egypt's generals to power, what they are really telling the Obama administration and the candidates they are weighing for next ruler in Cairo.

 Read unpublished details about Mubarak's fall and find out what other Arab rulers have learned from it.

Get some insights into where Washington is going next in relation to the Arab world and Israel.

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The pipeline carrying Saudi and Gulf oil from the Red Sea to the Egyptian Mediterranean is idle.  Although Cairo and the owners, Arab Petroleum Pipelines, say SudMed is working normally, debkafile's sources confirm the pipeline, which carries 3.1 million barrels of Gulf oil per day from the Red Sea to Egypt's Mediterranean coast, was inoperative Monday and Tuesday morning, Feb. 14 and 15, due to a general strike. The pipeline supplying Israel and Jordan with Egyptian gas is also inactive since Hamas blew it up Feb. 5.

Hosni Mubarak and his family have moved a large part of their assets – guesstimated at between $20 and $70 billion - from European banks to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Republics against personal guarantees from King Abdullah and Sheik Al Nahyan to block access to outside parties.This is reported by Gulf and West European sources. Mubarak denies ever resigning or handing power to the military. "I never knew Suleiman was going to make that statement."

The message Adm. Mike Mullen, Chairman of the Joint US Chiefs of Staff, brought Israel Sunday, Feb. 13, was that the 1979 peace accord with Egypt is not in jeopardy. He tried giving this assurance to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Gen. Benny Gantz - who became Israel's 20th chief of staff Monday. Both sides ignored Egyptian opposition leader Ayman Nour's comment: Camp David is finished. Gen. Gantz has the job of overhauling the IDF for five fronts.

Israel's Defense Minister Ehud Barak phoned the Egyptian council head, Defense Minister Mohamed Tantawi, Saturday night, Feb. 12, to thank him for transferring 900 men of two 18th Division battalions to Sinai to rein in the lawless rampage raging there. The Council acted within 24 hours of taking the reins of office from Hosni Mubarak. There is some speculation that the army is hiding the deposed president in a base on the Red Sea coast – far from Sharm el-Sheikh.

Friday night, Feb. 11, as Egypt celebrated Hosni Mubarak exit, Israel counted the cost of losing its most important strategic partner in the region. Thirty-two years of peace leave Israel militarily unprepared for the unknown on their 270-kilometer long southern border; no experience of desert combat; an army trained and equipped only for the hostile fronts of Iran, Lebanon's Hizballah and Syria; a dearth of intelligence about the Egyptian army and its commanders, and no clue to the new rulers' intentions.

Vice President Omar Suleiman announced Friday, Feb. 11, that Hosni Mubarak had decided to step down as president of Egypt and hand his powers to the High Council of the Armed Forces· The announcement was greeted with ecstatic cheers by the protesters assembled in Cairo's Tahrir Square and other city centers on the 18th day of their demonstrations for his ouster.
With a single sentence Suleiman marked the end of Mubarak's 32-year rule of Egypt.

Israel's new chief of staff Maj. Gen. Benny Gantz is saddled with might task of rebuilding Israel's armed forces from scratch to fit the potential menace posed by the upheaval in Egypt. Ashkenazi worked closely with Washington to attune combined US-Israel military resources to possible combat with Iran.

By holding on, Hosni Mubarak confronted the Obama administration with a moral dilemma: How to orchestrate a military coup raising a general to the presidency and reconcile it with the democratic transfer of power?

The conversation between President Barack Obama and Saudi King Abdullah early Thursday, Feb. 10, was the most acerbic the US president has ever had with an Arab ruler, debkafile's sources report. Their falling out on the Egyptian crisis so enraged the king that some US and Middle East sources reported he suffered a sudden heart attack. Rumors of his death rocked world financial and oil markets that morning and were denied by an adviser to the ruling family.

Egypt and its population of 82 million are on the point of a calamitous breakdown as large sections of the economy are shut down by strikes against state-appointed managements and Vice President Omar's Suleiman's leadership. As protesters continue to fill Cairo's Tahrir Square, trains have stopped running, food is running low and lifeline highways are blocked by protesters. Egypt's Foreign Minister Abul Gheit called on the army Wednesday, Feb. 9, to take over government and save Egypt from total anarchy.

Who moves into the presidential palace when (date unknown) Hosni Mubarak leaves? Washington's preferred candidate is not Omar Suleiman. DEBKA-Net-Weekly, in its coming issue Friday, surveys the field, none of which offers guarantees against violent upsets down the road. Is there a deal between the regime and the army? Maybe the incumbents are settling in to stay, sparing a few crumbs to keep the opposition quiescent.  Are there any other options?

Don't miss this exclusive forward look at tomorrow's Egypt - and much more.To subscribe to DEBKA-Net-Weekly, click here

Hamas while preparing follow-up attacks on the Sinai gas pipeline after Saturday's explosion has opened the Egyptian-Israeli border region to Al Qaeda jihadists, international smugglers and criminal gangs - all heading for the Israel border. Egypt lacks the manpower for securing the entire Sinai Peninsula. Its troops are concentrating on securing Sharm el Sheikh and the eastern bank of the Suez Canal. Hamas is left to prey on North Sinai and make it a launching pad for terror attacks on Israel.

A fresh surge of popular anti-Mubarak protest ripping across Egypt Tuesday, Feb. 8 – from the Western Desert to North Sinai - has brought the country close to a military coup to stem the anarchy. Vice President Suleiman conveyed this warning to a group of Egyptian news editors as the disorders began their third week began to spread to places of work. In Cairo, rebellious staff sacked state-appointed managements and set up "revolutionary committees" to run them.

debkafile's military sources disclose exclusively that the army heads, on the sidelines of the anti- and pro-Mubarak standoff till now, have decided to stand against the president's premature removal before his term runs out in 200 days. "We can on no account permit an Egyptian general, Hero of the October (1973) War against Israel, to be humiliated, whatever the political price may be," the generals say. Sunday, Feb. 6, Vice President Omar Suleiman's compromise proposals split the opposition.