Egypt is SHAKING UP Israel

Right, so Israel have now seized control of the Rafah Border Crossing in the last several days, and are now blocking any aid whatsoever from getting through, in complete violation of the rulings handed down by the ICJ, which Israel are of course ignoring, the ICJ as Netanyahu and his hard right genocidal regime being antisemitic, because of course they are. South Africa in the last few days have made another appeal to the ICJ to review their position and the ruling they’ve handed down already, to beef it up as it were in response to Israel’s incursions into Rafah already and especially in light of the border crossing being seized. But as welcome as it is to see South Africa continuing it’s moral crusade, seemingly single handed even after 7 months of genocide, the question others are asking is where exactly are Egypt in all of this? Egypt controls one side of the Rafah Border Crossing of course, it is on the Gaza-Egyptian Border after all and by seizing control of the Gazan side, Israel have violated decades old peace accords with Egypt and seemingly with no consequence. Has Egypt lost it’s collective spine? They’ve been involved in the peace process negotiations quite heavily, are they being punished for that by a nation with no intentions of peace? Well certainly the question has been asked, but actually Egypt aren’t happy and they have no stood up to be counted.
Right so, firs toff let’s deal with the ramifications regarding Egypt Israel relations when it comes to Israel having seized the Rafah Border Crossing, because actually there is legislation that prohibits Israel doing so, and it has stood for pretty much as long as I’ve been alive, the so called Camp David Accords coming into this world in the same year I did, back in 1978.
Now Israel and Egypt have had several conflicts in the past, five times they have gone to war with each other and Israel bear in mind has only existed since 1948, so that’s quite some going, but the Camp David Accords put an end to this. Clearly something had to be done to de-escalate the on-off situation as it was between Egypt and Israel and on 17th September 1978, under the Jimmy Carter US administration, at Camp David, the retreat of the US President as we know and hence the name, the Accords were signed by both the Egyptian President and Israeli Prime Minister of the day and was such a big deal, both men were awarded that years Nobel Peace Prize. It is regarded as one of the biggest achievements of the Carter administration.
The eventual outcome of these talks was called the ‘Framework for Peace in the Middle East’ and had three parts:
(1) a process for Palestinian self-government in the West Bank and Gaza – still an issue as we know.
(2) a framework for the conclusion of a peace treaty between Egypt and Israel, and
(3) a similar framework for peace treaties between Israel and its other neighbours.
Now on that second point, a peace treaty between Egypt and Israel was signed the following year in 1979 and has stood ever since. How much longer it stands for, is a big question right now.
Now there has been talk since Israel seized control of the Rafah Border Crossing, something the peace treaty prevents them from doing, that Egypt would tear up the Accords over this, potentially leading Egypt back into war with Israel, for a sixth time as that would be and that would amount to Israel being attacked pretty much on every single border it has by that point. However Egypt have chosen another way and arguably this is a bigger blow to Israel than any offensive, and a surefire sign that Egypt has decided that negotiations involving this Israeli government are going nowhere and it’s pointless trying to continue. Therefore they have instead joined South Africa in their case against Israel at the Hague. And just to underline how big an issue this is, a former Director of Israel’s Foreign Ministry, Alon Liel, spoke to the now banned in Israel Al-Jazeera:
A massive diplomatic blow to Israel, Egypt have been the mediators for Israel with other Arab nations for a long time, the debate as to whether Egypt had any spine given how long things have played out and how much Israel has been playing them has been a hot topic on social media, there have been some scathing reviews of Egypt apparently sitting there wringing their hands, but finally there’s be a shift, Egypt have had enough and you have to wonder given how involved with Israel they have been, as Alon Liel said, over the last 40 years certainly, how much dirt Egypt might actually have on them. Of all countries to join South Africa, Egypt actually might prove to be the most dangerous. Israel has spurned it’s pretty much only Middle Eastern – I won’t say ally, I don’t think they were ever quite that, only Middle Eastern country they were on reasonable diplomatic terms over, let’s put it that way.
So it’s not been a great week for Israel generally really has it? The UN have voted by vast majority to ask the UN Security Council to reconsider it’s decision to admit Palestine as a full member, expect the US to veto this again, but the optics are bad, and made worse by Israeli representative, slash the UN’s biggest man baby Erdan Gilan getting a baby shredder out and shredding the UN charter, this is worth watching for it’s comedy value alone:
I have to say I laugh every time I watch that, it is so infantile it’s mad, but doesn’t that sum up Israeli attitudes these days? Saying this is what everyone who voted in favour of Palestine’s admittance as a full member were doing, the irony not dawning on him that actually shredding everything the UN stands for is what his nation have been doing for months and their suspension from the UN is in my view grossly overdue.
On top of that though, there have been the halt in US weapons being sent to Israel from the US, Spain and Ireland are planning to recognise Palestinian statehood, Hamas are still fighting in areas the IDF had apparently already cleared, desperate for good press they threw state money at ad campaigns for Eurovision and still lost, with viewer numbers way down on what was typical, and now with Egypt joining South Africa at the ICJ there is every chance they could now press the big red button that so far they haven’t done overtly, which is to vote through a ceasefire order, no doubt with Uganda’s judge once again voting against though. Oh and there’s still the spectre of those arrest warrants from the International Criminal Court coming too. What is the hold up there now folks?
As welcome as this move now is by Egypt, it’s also taken far too long for them to come to this point. Diplomacy is one thing sure, but they know Netanyahu, they’ve watched Gaza get razed north to south and it is only now that the Rafah Border Crossing has been seized, that Egypt move. It makes you wonder whether fear of Israel opening the crossing and letting those in Rafah flee into the Sinai that has prompted this move, that this is a self motivated, self serving move by Egypt when they could have done what they are doing now much earlier and that is a valid criticism they must answer for. Nevertheless, let’s see how things pan out at the ICJ now they are on board, if things don’t go South Africa and Egypt’s way though, what then? Well Egypt control the Suez Canal of course, they could give the Houthis in Yemen, still hammering away at Israeli shipping as they are, they haven’t stopped and just shut the canal to pro Israel shipping, create a new Suez crisis. Do they have the backbone to do such a thing? Pass on that, but it makes for an interesting notion.
Another interesting notion is the thought that Egypt might join the war against Israel though again, it is something that has thusfar failed to materialise, though it did elicit a threat of them tearing up the aforementioned Camp David Accords, which you can find out more about in this video recommendation here and I’ll hopefully catch you on the next vid. Cheers folks.