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Despite Hostile Public, Egypt Won’t Destroy Israel Relations
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi. Photo: Russian Presidential Press and Information Office.
JNS.org – Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi is confronting a complex array of challenges along the country’s northeastern border with Gaza.
With approximately 1.4 million Palestinians amassed in Rafah on the Gaza-Egypt border, el-Sisi is engaged in negotiations for the release of Israeli hostages held by Hamas and simultaneously attempting to keep diplomatic ties with Israel intact.
However, amid these diplomatic efforts, he faces domestic issues compounded by strong anti-Israel sentiment among the Egyptian public, who perceive him as being too closely aligned with the United States and Israel.
Speculation has arisen regarding the potential dissolution of Egypt’s 45-year peace treaty with Israel in the event of an Israel Defense Forces incursion into Rafah. Israel asserts that the city serves as a stronghold for the last four Hamas battalions, which must be eliminated in order to win the war.
However, according to Jacob Olidort, director of research at the Washington-based Jewish Institute for National Security of America, it is “unlikely” Egypt would end its peace treaty with Israel if the IDF enters Rafah.
“Although this appeared to be a real concern following el-Sisi’s remarks several weeks ago, the [Egyptian] foreign minister’s statements in recent days made it clear that Egypt’s cancellation of its peace treaty with Israel is highly unlikely,” he told JNS.
Speaking at a press conference in Slovenia on Feb. 12, Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry said, “There is a peace agreement between Egypt and Israel, which has been in effect for the past 40 years and will continue to be,” according to Asharq Al-Awsat.
Egypt would adhere to the 1979 peace treaty as long as it remains reciprocal, he said, adding, “Therefore, I will rule out any comments that have been made on this matter.”
Olidort emphasized that canceling the treaty “would mean ending the deep cooperation between the Egyptian and Israeli militaries in fighting Islamic State in the Sinai, as well as U.S. military assistance.”
Eran Lerman, vice president of the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security, believes el-Sisi has greater worries and “will not compound his country’s woes unless he absolutely has to.”
In Lerman’s view, el-Sisi would not take the extraordinary step of cutting ties with Israel unless Israel expelled the Palestinians to Sinai or some other action, military or otherwise, that would lead to a massive breach of the fences.
According to Lerman, this is something Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is “committed to avoid.”
Haisam Hassanein, an adjunct fellow at the Washington-based Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told JNS he doesn’t believe Israel and Egypt would get into a conflict or cancel the peace treaty because of Hamas.
However, he said, Egypt “worries about a spillover to its territory, which could liquidate the Palestinian issue or open the door for Hamas and jihadi operatives to infiltrate its border by posing as refugees.”
“Previous bloody clashes between Palestinian militias in their host nations, such as Lebanon and Jordan, don’t inspire confidence in Cairo,” he added. Moreover, “If they attack Israel from Sinai, it could strain Egypt-Israel relations,” he noted.
This concern over a spillover has reportedly prompted Egypt to begin building a containment area for Palestinian refugees in Northern Sinai on the Gaza border as a precaution.
In addition to Israel’s war against Hamas, Egypt is currently dealing with a multitude of other issues. As Lerman recently wrote, “the Egyptian pound is in free fall; investors and business leaders are leaving; essentials are in short supply; tourism is in decline; and now, attacks on Red Sea shipping have led to a plunge in Suez Canal income, and the failure of talks with Ethiopia on the filling of the Renaissance Dam has cast a shadow on Egypt’s vital water supply.”
In addition, a civil war is raging in neighboring Sudan and Libya remains unstable.
All this places Egypt in a precarious position, and the need to demonstrate it is siding with the Palestinians seemingly clashes with its need to cooperate with Israel.
Olidort noted however that Egyptian public opinion is important, as are the “optics of how the government appears in relation to Israel and its operation in Gaza.”
He said Egypt’s position with regard to the Palestinians in Gaza “has less to do with shouldering the economic burden of caring for them or the security burden of fighting Hamas—there is, rest assured, no love lost between the Sisi government and Hamas or the Muslim Brotherhood—and a great deal to do with the public opinion pressure to not appear to side with either Israel or, militarily, with the United States.”
Egypt’s domestic challenges, and particularly its mounting economic woes, are very real, said Olidort. “But there is a clear recognition that compromising its regional reputation could make matters worse,” he added.
According to Olidort, the concerns of a spillover from Gaza as the IDF turns its focus on Rafah “are just as much about optics as about security; just as threatening, in the Egyptian view, as a porous border is the political blowback caused by a public narrative that Egypt is helping Israel push Palestinians from their land.”
At the same time, according to Lerman, Israel is “eager to preserve a highly valuable strategic relationship, even if the Egyptian public domain is still quite poisonous.”
As Israel moves forward with plans to invade Rafah and root out the Hamas terrorists there, including the group’s leader Yahya Sinwar, much of the international community and media have condemned Israel’s plans.
For instance, the South African government has gone as far as submitting an “urgent request” to the International Court of Justice in The Hague to consider whether Israel’s planned offensive in Rafah constitutes a “further imminent breach of the rights of Palestinians in Gaza.”
In a statement released on Friday, the ICJ declined to take additional measures.
British Foreign Secretary David Cameron called on Israel to restrain itself in Rafah. “Many of the people in Rafah have already moved three, four or five times. It is not possible for them to move again,” he said on Tuesday. “That is why it is so important that the Israelis stop and think before going ahead with any operations in Rafah.”
But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been pushing back against these warnings, telling ABC News in an interview on Sunday: “Those who say that under no circumstances should we enter Rafah are basically saying lose the war.”
“Victory is within reach. We’re going to do it. We’re going to get the remaining Hamas terrorist battalions in Rafah, which is the last bastion, but we’re going to do it,” Netanyahu said.
Israel’s position has been that only military pressure will secure the hostages’ release.
The daring commando operation in Rafah earlier this week that saw the rescue of Israeli hostages Fernando Simon Marman and Norberto Louis Har from Rafah only strengthens this position.
Luckily for Israel, Hamas’s affiliation with the Muslim Brotherhood, el-Sisi’s sworn enemies, means he needs to support Israel in its fight to defeat Hamas.
“At the end of the day, Egypt has as much an interest in the defeat of rabid Islamism as we do,” said Lerman.
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On Yom HaShoah, Three New Holocaust Films Are Worth Watching
The entrance to Auschwitz-Birkenau in Poland. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.
As we mark Yom HaShoah this year, three Holocaust films stand out.
The first is a gripping drama about the first Jewish escape from a death camp. The World Will Tremble is directed by Lior Geller and features excellent acting by Oliver-Jackson Cohen, who plays Solomon, a Jew who makes an unlikely escape from Chelmno. The cast of Jews and Germans is all stellar but Geller, who wrote and directed the film, is the real star. Geller crafted a gripping film that soaks you in a bath of horror and despair only to embrace you with a towel of freedom and hope. It is an impressive movie that is full of heart, and tells a story that is not well known.
UnBroken is a documentary that shares the seemingly implausible story of seven Jewish siblings who survived the Holocaust, largely due to gentile farmers who chose to hide them. It is directed with deft and passion by Beth Lane, who goes to Germany to see the places where her family, including her mother, hid.
Unbroken explains how Lane’s grandmother was extremely daring, and when she loved a Christian man, she got him to convert. There is some unexpected humor toward the beginning of the film, and at a time when few survivors are alive, it is a blessing to see a film in which some appear and are completely cogent. The film is also based on the writings of Alfons, one of the seven siblings who survived. Was that result due to luck, kindness of farmers, or the work of God? The film is not overly preachy and allows the viewer to come to their own conclusions.
Lane’s film is an exquisite look at how the morality of two people can impact more than 70 lives, as the siblings have children and grandchildren. At one point, Lane asks if young people today would risk their lives to hide her. We can never really know what one would really do, but I suspect that few would risk their lives to save strangers.
Both The World Will Tremble and UnBroken would be excellent choices to show high school or college classes.
And if you want to learn about something you most certainly haven’t heard of, none other than the iconic Martin Scorsese has done an episode of his series The Saints that involves an unexpected hero of the Holocaust. Available on Fox Nation, the episode tells of Maximilian Kolbe, a Catholic priest who started the first Christian radio station in Poland. Interestingly, Kolbe at one time preached antisemitism, believing that the sick conspiracy book The Protocols of The Elders of Zion was actually true.
But that did not stop him from doing something unthinkable when the Gestapo sent him to Auschwitz. When one Jew escaped, a Nazi decided 10 would have to die. When Kolbe heard that one Jewish man cried that he had a wife and child, Kolbe asked the Nazi if he could be killed instead. He agreed. And a Jewish man named Franciszek Gajowniczek was saved, and lived until 1995 and attended the canonization of Kolbe.
There is not much dialogue, but the acting of Milivoje Obradovic is strong as Kolbe, who isn’t dramatic, doesn’t yell and chooses his fate to die for a Jew as if it is a totally normal request, even though the Nazi seems dumbfounded.
It is unclear whether or not he realized The Protocols of The Elders of Zion was a lie, or he simply realized that the barbarity of the Holocaust was an affront to God. Earlier in the episode, as a child, he says he wants to be pure and a martyr and may have been affected by his father’s death.
At a time when some people think they know all of the Holocaust stories already out there, here are three new ones — and all are worth telling.
The author is a writer based in New York.
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UK Lifts Sanctions Against Syria’s Defense Ministry, Intelligence Agencies
Syria’s interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa attends an interview with Reuters at the presidential palace, in Damascus, Syria, March 10, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Khalil Ashawi
Britain on Thursday lifted assets freezes on Syria’s defense and interior ministries, and a range of intelligence agencies, reversing sanctions imposed during Bashar al-Assad’s presidency.
The West is rethinking its approach to Syria after insurgent forces led by the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham ousted Assad as president in December after more than 13 years of civil war.
A notice posted online by the British finance ministry said the Syrian Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Defense, and General Intelligence Directorate were among 12 entities no longer subject to an asset freeze.
The notice did not set out reasons for the de-listing.
In March, the government unfroze the assets of Syria’s central bank and 23 other entities including banks and oil companies.
The British government has previously stressed that sanctions on members of the Assad regime would remain in place.
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Finding Peace in the Middle East
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, then-US President Donald Trump, and United Arab Emirates (UAE) Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayed display their copies of signed agreements as they participate in the signing ceremony of the Abraham Accords, normalizing relations between Israel and some of its Middle East neighbors, in a strategic realignment of Middle Eastern countries against Iran, on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, US, September 15, 2020. Photo: REUTERS/Tom Brenner/
President Donald Trump is planning a trip to the Gulf States in May. According to the White House, he will visit Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). In anticipation, others are shifting gears, raising the question. “Are we getting closer to, or farther from, a peaceful region?”
Jordan just banned the Muslim Brotherhood (MB). The country’s Interior Minister said all MB activities would be banned in the country, and anyone promoting the group’s ideology will be held accountable by law. He added that the ban includes publishing, and requires “closure and confiscation” of all MB offices and property.
This, along with the Kingdom’s ban on Al Jazeera, puts Jordan in line with Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE. Israel and Bahrain also ban Al Jazeera, as does the Palestinian Authority (see below). All these entities understand that the Qatari government-owned media outlet magnifies and encourages radical MB ideology, promotes Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and attacks conservative Arab governments.
Jordan’s actions garnered praise from a prominent UAE entrepreneur posting on X: “The UAE was among the first to ban the Muslim Brotherhood and warn the world about its ideology … This is not Islamophobia! This is about national security, public safety, and peace.”
This is a step forward.
Lebanon
While Lebanon’s President Joseph Aoun agrees that the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) should be the only armed force in the country, he is hedging over what happens to the remaining Iran-supported Hezbollah forces and weapons. “Any divisive issue should not be approached through the media or social platforms, but rather through quiet and responsible communication with the concerned parties.”
Hezbollah wouldn’t agree “to give up its arms de facto out of principle,” Karim Safieddine, a Lebanese political writer and doctoral student in sociology at Pittsburgh University, told Al Jazeera. Instead, they could disarm “in exchange for big benefits.”
Now, that is a bit of bravado, as Saudi reports indicate that more than 200 of the remaining Hezbollah commanders have left Lebanon for South America, where the organization has a well-entrenched drug and arms smuggling network.
Apparently, the commanders fear they could be targeted if more of its infrastructure is dismantled — though whether it would be targeted by the IDF or by unhappy Lebanese citizens is unclear. In any case, there are still tens of thousands of Hezbollah supporters in the country, and Lebanon still permits the airing of Al Jazeera.
But, an Israeli military source told Ynet, “In large areas, the Lebanese army is taking action against Hezbollah to a much greater extent than we expected.” Israel’s decimation of Hezbollah offers Lebanon its best chance for stability and prosperity in decades. If they can take it. It is a maybe.
The Palestinian Authority
It almost sounded as if Mahmoud Abbas, the corrupt dictator of the Palestinian Authority (PA), in the 20 year of his single, elected 4-year term, had come to grips with the monstrosity of Hamas behavior. Abbas called on Hamas to “release the hostages.” And, indeed, he did call Hamas “sons of b****es,” a huge insult.
But this is not about peace. Abbas opposes the continued holding of hostages by Hamas because he, Abbas, is paying a price. And Israel is winning. He told an audience:
They don’t want to hand over the American hostage. You sons of b****es — hand over what you have and get us out of this. Don’t give Israel an excuse. Don’t give them an excuse. Hamas has given the criminal occupation excuses to commit its crimes in the Gaza Strip, the most prominent being the holding of hostages. Why have they taken them hostage? I am the one paying the price. Our people are paying the price, not Israel … My brother, just hand them over. [emphasis added]
The banning of Al Jazeera by Abbas should be seen in this context. Al Jazeera, and the Government of Qatar, support Hamas over the PA and incite violence against both the PA and Israel. While the latter is acceptable to him, the former is not.
And Abbas isn’t too keen on Americans, either. He told his audience: “They [the Americans] said: Normalize, or something like that. You know the Americans; the Americans are like this. May their father be cursed [Laughter and applause]. I am not a great Arab leader. I am a dwarf, this small. Thirty-three times I told them, ‘No!’”
This is not a man seeking a resolution of the conflict either with Israel or the United States. This one is a no.
Finding Peace
The Abraham Accords of 2020 split the region. There remain those like Lebanese Sunni Islamic scholar Aboubaker Zahabi, who, during a protest in Beirut, declared: “To the sons of Zion, our religion is the religion of jihad. We will come to you and slaughter you.”
But there is also Khalifa, who marked Holocaust Memorial Day: “Standing here today as an Emirati and a believer in tolerance, coexistence and peace, I honor the memory of Holocaust victims and pay tribute to their memory by working to create a world where dignity is upheld and diversity is cherished.”
And Mohamed Albahraini of Bahrain, who wrote: “#Holocaust Remembrance Day. Asking God for the victims of our #JEWISH brothers and sisters mercy and forgiveness. May their souls rest in peace forever.”
As the President prepares for his trip, more Khalifas and Mohameds — and fewer Aboubakers — means more possibility that the region’s upheaval will ultimately result in peace. Good luck, President Trump.
Shoshana Bryen is Senior Director of The Jewish Policy Center and Editor of inFOCUS Quarterly magazine.
The post Finding Peace in the Middle East first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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