Egypt is mad as fuck throughout this whole ordeal, they’ve been forced (repeatedly) into a bad situation;
- Suez traffic is down after Houthi attacks on shipping, reducing government income from Suez transit fees - 2% of GDP is no joke to lose overnight, especially for a poorer nation like Egypt
- Domestic pressure from within, ranging from Arab/Muslim/humanitarian solidarity with Gaza, to their own Palestinian diaspora population that wants their government to be more forceful with Israel and/or the international community
- Political pressure from without, to maintain a status quo that increasingly does not serve their interests
- Forced to be the only viable transit point for aid and personnel in/out of Gaza, a security nightmare they never wanted
- And now Israel is saying that THEY need to take over the land along the border, because “any other arrangement would not ensure the demilitarization that we seek”
All while Israel consistently blames Egypt for all smuggling that occurs into Gaza. And Egypt is moving military hardware to the border now.
Your move Biden, you can stop this TODAY.
I’m surprised we haven’t heard way more about Egypt and this. Egypt has a fuck ton of problems with Israel that have fuck all to do with Palestinians. They’ve already gone to war with each other, and a modern war wouldn’t be any more pleasant
The crazy part of this situation is that Sisi is arguably the most pro-Israel leader in Egypt’s history.
Egypt has tried to play the middle road between the Arab League, US global and regional muscle, and Israel for a long time, but understandably doesn’t want roughly 2 million Gazan refugees arriving overnight into their fragile economy, nor wants to stand idle as Gaza gets pounded.
Oh yes, America interfere with more international disputes! (especially one that has been going on for longer then the Roman empire) and throw away 70 years of investment in an alliance. Might as well dissolve the UN while they are at it.
Biden enables Israeli aggression by providing military support. This isn’t important for the IDF in Gaza, they can crush that nut solo. What it is important for is Hezbollah. Biden’s unlimited support takes that threat (mostly) off the board, so the IDF can ratchet and ratchet the pressure on Gaza without having to be concerned about their neighbor to the north who take issue with said treatment of Gaza (and their occupation of the Golan Heights).
Remove that support and Israel cannot ignore diplomatic solutions with Hezbollah (as Israel has been), or at the very least is looking at a two front war - a situation Israel historically has avoided at all cost. THAT is leverage that could work.
Otherwise Netanyahu gets to take the US for a ride, as long as “the unthinkable” isn’t threatened. Israel is the one destroying 70 years of UN & US led peace efforts, and their overreaction is fueling this crisis.
This article lists another website as its source. That website is in arabic. I ran the source article through a translator and found:
Today (Saturday), the American Wall Street Journal quoted Egyptian officials as saying that Cairo warned Israel that any ground operation in Rafah would lead to an immediate suspension of the bilateral peace agreement.
Egyptian officials added that an Egyptian delegation visited Tel Aviv last Friday to hold talks with Israeli officials about the situation in Rafah. They added that Israeli officials are trying to convince Egypt to agree to show some cooperation regarding a ground operation in Rafah, which the Egyptian side opposes, according to the newspaper.
The Wall Street Journal attributed Egyptian officials, whom it did not reveal, to say that in recent days, Egypt has redeployed dozens of main battle tanks and infantry fighting vehicles near the “Rafah border crossing.”
The Israeli Broadcasting Corporation reported today, citing a senior Israeli official, that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu informed the War Council that the planned ground military operation in Rafah must be ended before the month of Ramadan next March.
The commission added that Netanyahu also ordered the army and security services to present a dual plan to the war council to evacuate the civilian population from Rafah and “eliminate the Hamas brigades” there.
I couldn’t find a link to the WSJ article listed, so I can’t be positive which article they’re referencing, but I’m confident it’s this one based on context clues like date and subject matter. Unfortunately, I can’t confirm the arabic source’s claims with WSJ since I am poor, impoverished, and also not doing well financially. So 🤷♀️ I guess.
Sure does give impressions of hearsay though.
A) Thank you for this research.
B) Link to WSJ article.
Thank you for the link. Below is the excerpt in question.
Military operations in Rafah threaten to strain Israel’s relations with Egypt, its neighbor and diplomatic partner. After Israel informed Egypt that it was planning a ground operation in Rafah, Egyptian officials warned that if any Palestinians were forced to cross into the Sinai Peninsula, or if Israeli troops moved into Rafah, a decadeslong peace treaty between the two countries would be suspended.
This is what I get when I ran the Arabic article through a translator. We must have chosen different articles.
Reports: Egypt threatened to suspend the peace agreement with Israel
Dubai - Mahmoud Abdel Razek - Egypt renewed its “complete rejection” of any military operation in the city of Rafah, warning of “serious consequences” that might result from that, according to a statement issued by the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Sunday.
Egypt affirmed in the statement that it “will continue its contacts and movements with various parties, in order to reach an immediate ceasefire, implement the truce, and exchange prisoners and detainees.” The Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs called on influential international powers to intensify pressure on Israel to respond to these efforts, and to avoid taking measures. It increases the complexity of the situation, and causes harm to the interests of everyone without exception.” The Egyptian threat to suspend the Camp David Accords, which has represented the cornerstone of stability between the two countries for nearly half a century, came after the Israeli Prime Minister announced that he had ordered the army to prepare for a military operation in the city Rafah. The prominent Egyptian parliamentarian and media personality, Mustafa Bakri, had previously warned of the danger that might happen to the peace agreement between Egypt and Israel, due to Israel’s practices.
More than half of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million people were displaced to Rafah to escape fighting in other areas, and were crowded into sprawling camps and UN-run shelters near the border. Egypt fears that thousands of Palestinian refugees will flow into its territory, while relief groups have warned that the attack The Israeli movement will exacerbate the already catastrophic humanitarian situation. The Palestinian Hamas movement said that any attack in Rafah would “blow up” the talks brokered by the United States, Egypt and Qatar regarding the exchange of hostages held by Hamas in Gaza and Palestinian prisoners.
If this happens I’ll feel really bad for Jimmy, because this was a huge part of his legacy. And after losing Rosalynn, too.
It’s been “widely reported”… must be a fact that can be written about
The author is hardly some bloke down at the pub. https://lsa.umich.edu/history/people/faculty/jrcole.html
Founded in 1995, ZNet (also known as ZNet, ZNetwork and Z Communications) is a website with contributors that include Noam Chomsky,[8][9][10] Eduardo Galeano,[8] Boris Kagarlitsky,[8] Edward Said,[8] Chris Spannos[11] and Kevin Zeese.[12][13] John Pilger has described it as one of the best news sources online.[8] Rene Milan of the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies called the site a rich source of information about participism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZNetwork
Weird that you would link the Wikipedia article but not quote the opening paragraph.
Yet still actively building a walled ‘buffer zone’ to further imprison fleeing Palestinians
