by Geoffrey Churchman
This article in Egypt Today, while designed to look like a statement of solidarity with Palestinians, is really a reaffirmation of Egypt’s intent to keep Gazans out.
In 2014, Egypt expanded its Gaza isolation zone to 1 km from the border, creating greater security for Israel as well and exposing the total hypocrisy of the outside world. If Israel had done or even threatened to do something similar, the outcry would have been deafening and there would probably have been a Security Council resolution the U.S. would be hard-pressed to veto. Additionally, in interviews with French TV and during his visit to Italy, the president stated that Egypt would protect Israel from attacks from Egyptian territory and would be willing to send troops to Palestinian areas “…to assist the Palestinian police in preventing attacks on Israel”.
The following year, 2015, an Egyptian court listed Hamas as a terrorist organisation, accusing it of supporting an insurgency in northern Sinai. The ruling came a month after a different court labelled the armed wing of Hamas as a terrorist group. The court rulings effectively banned Hamas within Egypt.
“It has been proven without any doubt that the movement has committed acts of sabotage, assassinations and the killing of innocent civilians and members of the armed forces and police in Egypt,” Judge Mohamed el-Sayed said, according to state news agency Mena.
This should explain why Egypt built strong fortifications along its 12 km border with Gaza and has rigorously enforced them. Those who try to cross the land border illegally get shot at, as do those who stray into Egyptian territory on the beach or in the coastal waters.
The Hamas tunnels into Eygpt have been filled with water or gas and underground vibrations indicating tunneling result in the Egyptians detonating explosives on the ground to collapse them.
It’s clear that both Egypt and Israel view each other as allies in the ongoing battle against Islamic extremists and neither want an influx of indocrinated Gazans into their countries. Obviously, both have an enormous public relations headache now with the level of destruction in Gaza from the military action and the cost of reconstructing it to make it habitable again is going to be huge.
On the subject of the Hamas attack on Israel of 7 October, Egypt’s Intelligence Minister General Abbas Kamel personally called PM Netanyahu only 10 days before the massive attack that Gazans were likely to do “something unusual, a terrible operation,” according to the Ynet news site. But the warning was ignored — why?
Here in NZ we have and will continue to have the problem of willfully ignorant neo-Marxists who just see the issue in terms of their “Muslims good, Jews bad” ideology, just like their “Maori good, Pakeha bad” ideology.
To close, here’s a music video produced by the Green Party & Antifa’s Hamas heros — will Antifa/Te Pati Kakariki translate it into Te Reo Maori and sing it during their public melées?
A lot of detail on Egypt here. But … it’s Egypt. People in the West who haven’t travelled have this idea of Egypt being more advanced, more Westernised than other Middle Eastern countries. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Egypt is poor and backward, with low educational standards, especially for women. Other Middle Eastern countries, including Gaza, are way ahead (ahead of us too but that’s not hard). The dress code for women is far more conservative than in any other Muslim country I’ve been to. I didn’t go out to the oases because burqas creep me out (never seen a burqa in Iran).
The Muslim Brotherhood started in Egypt. When I was there in 2017, tourists were prevented from getting any trains up the Nile except the Wagon Lit, because of all the terrorist cells up the river. A taxi from Luxor to Abados meant an armoured escort all the way, increased in the towns to a truck full of soldiers. I find it hard it to believe that Hamas was responsible for the armed insurgency in the Sinai.
Countries like Syria give Palestinians full rights except for citizenship, because they would then lose their rights in Palestine. I don’t see Egypt being able to make a principled stand on anything. Egypt is very dependent on tourism. Israel has been bombing Damascus and Aleppo airports all year. It wouldn’t take much of that to wreck Egypt’s tourist trade and its economy.
‘[…] neo-Marxists who just see the issue in terms of their “Muslims good, Jews bad” ideology’. Where do you get that from? The issue is the illegitimate, terror state of Israel, and plenty of Jews around the world, both orthodox and liberal at least condemn its behaviour, and many condemn its existence.
What we do have is ‘Jews good, Muslims bad’, accompanied by the most extraordinary propaganda (‘let’s bomb Iran back to the stone age, they won’t notice’). NZ seems to have reincarnated into a country of Christians Zionists, whereby ethnic cleansing via the destruction of villages (500 in 1947-9?), mass murder and the displacement of huge numbers of people, the theft of their land and towns, including the important city of Jerusalem, is moral and desirable if it means returning the Chosen People to the Promised Land. The BFD recently had an article which was all about the Book of Genesis. The country is an embarrassment.
I watched the video. I found it egregious, but for balance, shouldn’t you have also linked to the video of the young girls happily singing about exterminating everyone in Gaza? And there’s plenty more of the same sort coming out of Israel.
Yes, the article is about Egypt and the problems that the Muslim Brotherhood and its Hamas offshoot have caused the country. The Green Party/Antifa won’t recognise that, they only see the World in terms of rich racial oppressors and poor racially oppressed.
There are also ISIS cells in Egypt, mainly in Sinai – but there’s been no mention of their presence in Gaza where it seems to be just Hamas and Islamic Jihad. Egypt’s GDP per capital is well below that of Israel but so is that of Saudi Arabia, despite the opulent lifestyle of the elites. The Sisi government has been trying to elevate living standards in Egypt and is well aware of the economic brake that Wahabist-Islamic attitudes have played.
I dispute that those supporting the Palestinians are cheering Hamas: most just want peace and justice, though some of the Greens at least have their own agenda, ie convincing the world that Maori grievances are on the same scale as those of Palestinians.
Whereas those supporting Israel are certainly cheering ethnic cleansing on a mammoth scale and exceptional brutality. Maybe Boko Harem can compete, but I doubt it. Right now the IDF are going round arresting people to compensate for those they released.
No mention that there is more and more evidence that the carnage of October 7 was caused largely or solely by Israel, that Israel was responsible for the burnt bodies, and that it is increasingly likely that all Hamas ever planned to do was take hostages. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GjC0_swYbT4