Born Zsuzsika Rubin in Budapest in 1939, Susan Rubin Suleiman has recently completed a memoir titled Daughter of History. Julie Sugar writes in her review:

In the first of three parts of Daughter of History, titled simply “Budapest,” Suleiman is a discursive yet deft guide, moving Zsuzsika Rubin’s story forward while exploring her swirling memories along with Jewish Hungarian history; she is, after all, a “scholar of war and memory.”

Navigating past and present, scenes emerge in pieces: playing in the dirt, as a five-year-old, for weeks on a countryside farm with a Christian family until her mother was able to come for her; her family living, under false papers, at a noblewoman’s estate in Buda, where her parents worked as caretakers and Zsuzsika became Mary, learning in secret from her mother how to sing “O Holy Night” on Christmas; being liberated by Russians (who also jovially take her father’s gold watch from his wrist) and experiencing a brief respite, a time when “the Communist party crackdown was only a glimmer on the horizon.”

Before exploding electronics in Lebanon seized the attention of the Israeli public, debate there had focused on the Philadelphi Corridor—the strip of land between Gaza and Egypt—and whether the IDF can afford to withdraw from it. Egypt has opposed Israeli control of the corridor, which is crucial to Hamas’s supply lines, and Egyptian objections likely prevented Israel from seizing it earlier in the war. Yet, argues Mariam Wahba, Egypt in the long run only stands to lose by letting Hamas use the corridor, and has proved incapable of effectively sealing it off:

Ultimately, this moment presents an opportunity for the United States to hold Egypt’s feet to the fire.

To press Cairo, the United States should consider conditioning future aid on Cairo’s willingness to cooperate. This should include a demand for greater transparency and independent oversight to verify Egyptian claims about the tunnels. Congress ought to hold hearings to understand better Egypt’s role and its compliance as a U.S. ally. Despite Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s nine trips to the Middle East since the start of the war, there has been little clarity on how Egypt intends to fulfill its role as a mediator.

By refusing to acknowledge Israel’s legitimate security concerns, Egypt is undermining its own interests, prolonging the war in Gaza, and further destabilizing its relationship with Jerusalem. It is time for Egyptian leaders either to admit their inability to secure the border and seek help from Israel and America, or to risk being perceived as enablers of Hamas and its terrorist campaign.