Egypt and a Conspiring Agreement

After 21 days of the Zionist aggression on innocents and civilians in Gaza, the masks fell and it became known that Israel did not mainly target Hamas as much as besieging the Arab world by land, sea and air as a preparatory step to assault Iran.

It was on January 16th when Israeli foreign minister Tzipi Livni and her American counterpart, Condoleezza Rice, signed a questionable memorandum of understanding to the effect that America takes it upon itself, in collaboration with NATO and regional allies, to strictly control the land, sea and air of the Gaza Strip through the Red Sea, the Mediterranean, Aden and Arabian Gulfs and Sinai as well, to watch over the Strip and its crossings, find the tunnels and train some regional forces with the aim of fighting weapons smuggling to Gaza.

Conspicuously, the aforementioned agreement deals with Gaza as if it was a superpower and not a small stretch of land, weighing under the yoke of Zionist Israeli occupation. However, many were aware of the fact that the barbaric practices were not for Israel to show its muscles after the bitter defeat of July 2006, or to give Hamas a lesson so as to force it to stop launching rockets on the Southern towns of Israel. Rather, they aimed at blockading and cornering the Arab world to accept the settlement of liquidating the Palestinian cause, either by recognizing a Palestinian state without there being the occupied East Jerusalem and deprived of the least aspects of a noble humane life, or by applying the scheme of former American UN Ambassador John Bolton, that being a segregation between Gaza and the West Bank and holding Egypt and Jordan answerable for them respectively as things were before the defeat of June 5th, 1967.

In the light of these revelations, Egypt swiftly moved to thwart this conspiracy, which entangles it into new regional security arrangements to the benefit of Israel and menaces the Arab national security in general and that of Egypt in particular. On the other hand, some Israeli governmental sources declared, after signing the memorandum, that Israel will announce a unilateral cease fire, as if the Egyptian initiative to end the aggression was nil or Israel groped for a diplomatic victory to gloss over its crystal clear military failure.

That is why Egypt worked on many steps, including calling for an international-regional summit, with the head of Palestinian National Authority (PNA), the Jordanian king, the French president, the German Chancellor and UN Secretary General to exchange views about Israel’s bids to disregard the Egyptian initiative and UN 1860 Resolution, leaving the situation in Gaza and the entire Arab region in flames by talking about unilateral cease fire, without an immediate withdrawal.

In the same respect, Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abu El Gheit hastened on January 17th to assure that the Livni-Rice agreement does not put Egypt under any obligations whatsoever. And later on, Egyptian President, Hosni Mubarak said in the speech he gave on this occasion that Egypt would not allow the deployment of international forces on its borders with Gaza, deeming this a red line, not to be crossed by any whom.

Although the Egyptian attitude was slammed by many, claiming that Egypt did not behave in the manner, usually expected in such Arab crises, these quick moves on the part of Egypt were the steps on the right road, where Mubarak’s declarations made the situation clearer.

President Mubarak in his speech asked Israel to unconditionally cease its fire and thoroughly evacuate the occupied Strip: “[T]he attacks and offensives cannot end resistance nor bring about peace to the Israeli people. Rather, it feeds the fire of hate and spite and hinders peace efforts.”

He also revealed that negotiations are underway to open all the crossing points and end the Palestinians’ suffering, emphasizing, at the same time, that Rafah crossing will not be shut before humane aid groups and receiving the wounded and in need of cure, till it is completely opened, pursuant to the crossings’ agreement of 2005 signed between the PNA, Israel and EU.

And the Egyptian head of state did not forget to talk about Egypt’s contributions in the Palestinian issue: “Egypt did not abandon the struggle of the Palestinian people; we put an end to Abu Ammar’s [the late Palestinian president] blockade, supported him in Madrid conference and helped him, as the legitimate Palestinian president, return to Gaza after Oslo conventions of 1993. Not only that, but Egypt also convinced him not to accept the biased settlement of Camp David in 2000 and backed him in the first and second Intifada. And afterwards, we took every effort with president Mahmud Abbas for the sake of the Palestinian state and its cause.”

“All these,” Mubarak continued, “are clear efforts, aiming at nothing other than a recognized Palestinian State and united groups, standing behind and supporting one negotiator and defending the just cause of Palestine.”

Here, Mubarak digresses to say: “Egypt did not doubt for one moment that Israel will employ the resistance’s non-commitment to truce as a pretext and we asked both parties to show self restraint. Yet, and when the aggression took place, Egypt did not suffice outspokenly condemning it, it also sought practical solutions. We raised the one and only initiative to end blood pools and make up for the Security Council’s procrastination and pulled our weight to make it a success. And in spite of cease fire resolution, the Israeli military operations never ceased in the occupied Gaza Strip.”

Finally, the Egyptian president wraps up his speech by hammering Egypt’s committment towards bridging up the splits of Palestinian ranks and towards the solidarity of all Arabs, regardless of all “biddings” and “trifles.”

In short, the real intentions behind the aggression were unveiled: altering the security map of the region by Israel’s and America’s watching over and frisking whatever enters Gaza by land, sea and air and consequently besieging the Arab world, violating its integrity and threatening it with the same fate of Gaza if Israel was not obeyed. This is what Egypt and other perceptive Arab nations realized. Again, we all hope that Arabs, all Arabs, set aside their minor disputes, be attentive to stealthy conspiracies and plots in addition to strengthening their relationships and cooperation with countries such as Turkey and Iran, away from sectarian disputes of Sunni and Shiite, that solely serves US and Israel’s scheme in the region.