It’s Time for Egypt to Reject Conspiracy Theories and Embrace Israel

March 6 2020

Writing under the pseudonym Luqman el-Masry, an Egyptian analyst considers some of his country’s political pathologies, especially with regard to the Jewish state:

Why do we [Egyptians] view Palestinians as friends and Israelis as foes? Why do we have a strategic partnership with the U.S. though the average Egyptian believes, as do most Arabs, that the U.S. is a vile state that conspires with Israel against them? We have a peace treaty with Israel, but so much as to contemplate visiting that country is considered an act of treason.

Conspiracy theories are rife across the Arab world, . . . which enforce the dual notion that the West and Israel are perpetually conspiring against Arabs and that, owing to the West’s perceived support for Israel, there’s not much that can be done about it.

This [fatalism] does Egyptians a great disservice. . . . Consider, for example, the widespread belief among Egyptians in the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. Instead of working to establish a democratic, healthy community, Egyptians content themselves with the belief that they are hapless victims of a group of sinister [Jews] who held secret meetings to decide their future along with that of the entire world. Why try to shape our country’s future ourselves?

El-Masry hopes that things might change as Egyptians grow increasingly cynical about the failed pan-Arab vision that for so long dominated the country’s politics, and that they will eventually come to appreciate their northern neighbor and ally.

Read more at BESA Center

More about: Anti-Semitism, Egypt, Israel-Arab relations, Protocols of the Elders of Zion

Egypt Is Trapped by the Gaza Dilemma It Helped to Create

Feb. 14 2025

Recent satellite imagery has shown a buildup of Egyptian tanks near the Israeli border, in violation of Egypt-Israel agreements going back to the 1970s. It’s possible Cairo wants to prevent Palestinians from entering the Sinai from Gaza, or perhaps it wants to send a message to the U.S. that it will take all measures necessary to keep that from happening. But there is also a chance, however small, that it could be preparing for something more dangerous. David Wurmser examines President Abdel Fatah el-Sisi’s predicament:

Egypt’s abysmal behavior in allowing its common border with Gaza to be used for the dangerous smuggling of weapons, money, and materiel to Hamas built the problem that exploded on October 7. Hamas could arm only to the level that Egypt enabled it. Once exposed, rather than help Israel fix the problem it enabled, Egypt manufactured tensions with Israel to divert attention from its own culpability.

Now that the Trump administration is threatening to remove the population of Gaza, President Sisi is reaping the consequences of a problem he and his predecessors helped to sow. That, writes Wurmser, leaves him with a dilemma:

On one hand, Egypt fears for its regime’s survival if it accepts Trump’s plan. It would position Cairo as a participant in a second disaster, or nakba. It knows from its own history; King Farouk was overthrown in 1952 in part for his failure to prevent the first nakba in 1948. Any leader who fails to stop a second nakba, let alone participates in it, risks losing legitimacy and being seen as weak. The perception of buckling on the Palestine issue also resulted in the Egyptian president Anwar Sadat’s assassination in 1981. President Sisi risks being seen by his own population as too weak to stand up to Israel or the United States, as not upholding his manliness.

In a worst-case scenario, Wurmser argues, Sisi might decide that he’d rather fight a disastrous war with Israel and blow up his relationship with Washington than display that kind of weakness.

Read more at The Editors

More about: Egypt, Gaza War 2023