The Egyptian parliament met on October 19 and gave President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi the power to declare war against Israel, if necessary. Egypt and Israel have a peace treaty dating from 1979, which has been a success, proving that a neighboring Arab and Muslim country can share long-lasting peaceful relations with the Jewish State of Israel. Egyptians have watched in horror at the scenes of death and destruction in Gaza as the Israeli government exacts its revenge on Hamas after the October 7 attack on Israel.
With the promised Israeli ground invasion of Gaza beginning at any moment, it is expected to be a bloodbath among unarmed civilians. Already the death toll is at least 5,087, including 2,055 children. The Cairo Peace Summit, co-chaired by the leaders of Egypt, Jordan, and Palestine, met on October 21. Sisi said that the solution to the Palestinian issue is not the displacement of an entire people to other areas, but justice and obtaining their legitimate rights and the right to self-determination.
The US sent a low-level representative to the Cairo Peace Summit, and this was a message from US President Joe Biden, that the US is working against Egypt, and not with them. The US media is portraying Sisi as the villain, who refuses to open the gate at Rafah and allow displaced Palestinians under bombardment to flee. The reason behind Egypt's refusal to accept Palestinian refugees is never hinted at in the US media which parrots the US State Department talking points. Israel has a long-standing law that prevents any Palestinian who leaves Gaza, or the Occupied West Bank, from ever returning home.
The right of return is enshrined in international law; however, Israel does not comply with international law. Sisi knows there is an Israeli plan, condoned and supported by Biden, to remove all Palestinians from Gaza to Egypt, where they will be supported by humanitarian aid, but can never repopulate Gaza again. They will be permanently homeless and stateless refugees. The Israeli plan also includes the Occupied West Bank and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has warned of attempts to displace the Palestinian people and said: "We will not leave, we will not leave, we will stay in our land.
" Jordanian King Abdullah II said, "The violent bombing campaign in Gaza is a collective punishment of a besieged and helpless population," he said, calling it a "flagrant violation of international humanitarian law and a war crime." The US-Israeli plan is to move all the Palestinians in the Occupied West Bank into Jordan, which has had a peace treaty with Israel since 1994.
Both leaders have warned of a plan to de-populate the West Bank, which will then be the ultimate solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, as there will be no more occupation and no need for the UN resolution calling for the two-state solution. Israel will get everything, and the Palestinians will get nothing. Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said on October 18, that any attempts to displace Palestinians from the West Bank to Jordan would be considered a declaration of "war."
The US betrayal of Egypt runs deeper than the Gaza war. Biden set his sights on the record annual revenue of the Suez Canal, which totaled $9.4 billion in USD as of June 30, 2023. The major asset in Egypt handles roughly 10 percent of global maritime trade, and the US has a plan to declare economic war on Egypt by circumventing transit through the Suez Canal. The Biden plan against Egypt
On September 8, at the G-20 summit in New Delhi, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi unveiled the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC), which is a Biden plan to work behind the back of Egypt and undermine their economy. This plan will circumvent the Suez Canal. The huge plan links India with Europe and includes the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Israel. Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that the US had approached Israel for this project, which according to him will "reshape the face of the Middle East", while adding, "The State of Israel will be a central hub in this economic initiative." Not only does the IMEC work to the detriment of Egypt, but also Biden's chief enemy, China, and their Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), which began in 2013.
The IMEC project connects cross-country railway lines and shipping corridors from India's west coast with the UAE by sea, and a rail route crossing the Arabian Peninsula, with the Israeli port of Haifa as the endpoint. From Haifa, goods are shipped to Piraeus, Greece which is the gateway to all European destinations. Included in the plan are pipelines for hydrogen produced in Saudi Arabia and the UAE, high-powered IT connections, and energy grids. Biden wants India tied to the West, thus serving as a counter-balance to China. At the same time, the plan promotes the normalization between Israel and Saudi Arabia, which has been the main goal of Netanyahu since taking office, and a priority of the US State Department under the Biden administration.
Saudi Arabia and the UAE regard hydrogen production as a green alternative to their fossil-based energy exports. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the IMEC plan was "much more than 'just' a railway or a cable" adding, "It is a green and digital bridge across continents and civilizations." The IMEC plan could potentially speed up trade between India and Europe by up to 40 percent. However, its critics point out that the cargo must be off-loaded, and re-loaded twice in the route, which will add costs that might not be cost-effective as opposed to the traditional Suez Canal route.
But, the US support of the IMEC proves that their support is not about saving money, but is about betraying Egypt. The Saudi position President Trump's plan, the Abraham Accords of 2020, gained momentum when the UAE, Bahrain, Sudan, and Morocco normalized relations with Israel. The big prize to both Israel and the US would be signing with Saudi Arabia, and negotiations were progressing favorably until the current Gaza war began. Saudi Arabia halted any progress on normalization in favor of pro-Palestinian solidarity. The Kingdom's stance will affect Israel's participation in IMEC. Previous US betrayal of Egypt Former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak was a staunch and loyal ally of the US, and yet they called for him to step down. President Barack Obama and his Vice President Joe Biden engineered a US-rigged election in which the Muslim Brotherhood candidate, Mohamed Morsi, was elected.
The American official in Cairo who was sentenced to five years in prison by an Egyptian court for election fraud was whisked away from Cairo before serving time by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who used her diplomatic immunity to transport Lila Jaafar to Washington, DC where she now serves as an official with the Peace Corps. This US betrayal of Egypt lasted less than a year, during which hundreds of unarmed civilians were massacred by the Morsi regime, and then the Egyptian people threw out the American puppet, and the current president Sisi came to power. The US has no friends, only interests. America is the first to teach the lesson: "Treaties are made to be broken".
Steven Sahiounie is a two-time award-winning journalist
