As the carnage in Gaza continues, a speech from Abdel Fattah El Sisi, Egypt’s president, to mark the 1952 revolution was a great disappointment, wrote Abdel Bari Atwan, the editor of the online news website Rai Al Youm.
The speech dedicated only six minutes to Gaza and these centred on Mr El Sisi’s meetings with officials to reach a ceasefire, the writer remarked.
Egypt’s regional leadership role has greatly shrunk in recent times and now Palestinian demands to Cairo have also been reduced to opening a border crossing and to being a neutral mediator. Why is this?
It is known that deep hostility exists between Mr El Sisi and Hamas, but not all Gazans belong to Hamas.
Palestinians have long lived under dire circumstances that have been exacerbated since Mr El Sisi came to power.
There is nothing wrong with Palestine’s resistance movements demanding an end to the blockade, the opening of border crossings, and the reopening of the port and airport. These humanitarian demands are not a security threat to their neighbours.
Mr El Sisi keeps saying he is part of Gamal Abdel Nasser’s legacy. But if Nasser were president of Egypt today, he would not stand idly by. In fact if that were the case, Israel would not dare commit such atrocities in the first place.
Palestinian insistence on having these demands met before a ceasefire is not because they do not trust Egypt. It is because they do not trust Israel. President Mahmoud Abbas has been negotiating for 20 years and has not won a single concession from Israel.
The Israeli war on Gaza is the latest in a series of serious tests Egypt’s authorities have faced since taking office, noted Talal Salman in an article in the Cairo-based paper Al Shorouk.
Israeli is cashing in on the enmity between the Egyptian authorities and the Muslim Brotherhood in order to paint the 1.8 million Gazans, including children, women and the elderly as if they are all from the Brotherhood.
The Egyptian authorities were wrong in assuming Hamas would beg them to step in to get Israel to stop its attack and in assuming that Israel would call for it to mediate.
Now the attack has developed into a full-blown conflict that has targeted all the people of Gaza. The antagonism towards Hamas must not blind the Egyptian authorities to this fact.
Mohamed Krishan wrote in the pan-Arab paper Al Quds Al Arabi that with every act of aggression by Israel, American and most European politicians repeat the same trite chorus that Israel has the right to defend itself. This tired mantra has reverberated from the US and officials in Europe, Canada and Australia.
Legally, Gaza is under occupation and has a right to self-defence. Legal experts dismiss the Israeli argument that attacks on Gaza fall under the definition of self-defence. Five years ago, the International Court of Justice rejected that same excuse when Israel used it as the pretext to begin construction of the “separation barrier”, saying that there was no right to self-defence for an occupier under international law.
Even if Israel had that right, no fair-minded person could support its excessively disproportionate response.
The UAE-based Al Bayan said in its Thursday editorial that Israel’s assault is a slur on humanity.
This crime would not be taking place had there been no political cover for the Israeli government in the form of international silence. These acts of war aim to disrupt the peace process and the establishment of a Palestinian state. The international community must stop Israel, it said.
Translated by Abdelhafid Ezzouitini
aezzouitni@thenational.ae