The Chief of Staff of the Egyptian Army, Lieutenant General Ahmed
Khalifa, inspecting the security situation and safety measures along the
border with the Gaza Strip, September 5, 2024 [photo credit: Egypt MoD]
The 1973 Yom Kippur war and the Camp David accords that followed saw
an evolution of this ideological framework wherein the separate peace
with Israel was framed as a necessary requirement for Egypt’s economic
development. However, support for the Palestinians remained a constant,
at least at the rhetorical level. This continued even as relations with
Israel continued to grow tighter, evolving into a close alliance
by the time Sisi came to power. Hence, anti-imperialism as symbolised
by support for the Palestinians remained an important ideological tenet
buttressing the rationale for the national military state. It was later
to be turned inwards against domestic opponents of the regime
manifesting itself in a myriad of conspiracy theories that the military
propagated to justify the coup in 2013. One such claim was that the
Muslim Brotherhood had a plan to sell Sinai
to the Palestinians for US$8 billion, financed by Qatar. It had the
double whammy effect of accusing the Brotherhood of selling a part of
the national territory and of colluding with Israel to facilitate the liquidation of the Palestinian cause.
There were other conspiracy theories that were even more fantastical,
including references to a global plot involving the United States and
other unnamed players which aimed to destroy the Egyptian State. These
false narratives linked the Muslim Brotherhood and secular activists as
internal agents for mysterious global powers being led by America.
Fantastical though they were the narratives were useful in reviving
deeply entrenched anti-imperialist sentiments to justify a tidal wave of
popularly backed repression against the Egyptian opposition. They
helped to cement a complex and contradictory relationship with Israel,
where a close alliance evolved, while Hamas was accused
of conducting terror attacks on Egyptian soil and the Egyptian
opposition was accused of colluding with conspiratorial, regional and
international powers working against the State. All of this was taking
place while support for the Palestinian people remained the official
position of the regime, albeit through the peace process and within the
confines of the 1967 borders.
This complex and contradictory ideological edifice makes the idea of
accepting a mass influx of Palestinians, against their will, the
equivalent of ideological suicide. The entire justification for the
existence of the regime, one can even argue the national state,
collapses like a house of cards. This is what makes Trump’s remarks
extremely dangerous for Sisi: it lays waste the justification for the
Camp David Accords, which saw Egypt sidelined from the conflict,
allowing Israel a free hand in its further colonisation of Palestinian
land. Simply put, the regime will have no choice but to resist the
influx of the Palestinians by any means necessary. Not out of support
for the people of Gaza, whom it helped to siege
for more than a decade, but because of its own need to survive. The
cornerstone of Egypt's alliance with Israel, which mainly revolves
around the survival of the Sisi regime, would be upended opening up an
avenue of conflict between the two parties. Uncharted waters.
Trump’s policy, however, is not only dangerous to Egypt, but to the
entire group of so called “moderate” Arab states. By adopting Israel’s
wildest colonial fantasies as a matter of American policy, Trump is
putting Israel’s ambitions above the security of these regimes.
Destabilising Egypt and Jordan, the other country Trump has said should
take Palestinians, could lead to a domino effect, cascading through the
Gulf and reaching Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
The United States is not only an unreliable ally, it is effectively
acting like a revisionist power in the region, deconstructing alliances
with Arab states it has assiduously built over more than six decades.
The policy of managing Palestinian national aspirations through the
mirage of a never-ending peace process, aided and abetted by a
collaborationist Palestinian Authority in the West Bank and the
continued siege of Gaza is a thing of the past. Now, in Israeli eyes and
with Trump’s apparent backing, is the time for unbridled colonial
ambitions, supported by America’s military might. Should this wilfully
reckless policy prevail then imperial hubris, Trump and Israel’s, will
push the region into an abyss that will far exceed the turmoil of the
Iraq war with consequences that will last for decades to come.
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