On Monday, Cairo voiced its strenuous objections to any Israeli attempt to take control of the Philadelphi Corridor, the nine-mile road along the Egypt-Gaza border. The announcement comes as the IDF moves southward through Gaza, and will soon have to drive Hamas out of the border city of Rafah while finding a way to end subterranean smuggling from the Sinai Peninsula, which appears to continue despite Egypt’s efforts to stop it. Eran Lerman examines how Jerusalem can best maintain good relations with President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi while fulfilling its immediate security needs:
It continues to be in Israel’s interest for Sissi’s Egypt, rather than Qatar, to maintain the lead on the hostage situation, as both military pressure and indirect channels of communication are being used to generate progress once again. This preference should be shared with the Biden administration, which seems to be unduly beholden to the Qataris and at times insufficiently attentive to Egypt’s needs—and Egypt’s importance.
As Israel’s leadership has made all too clear, it will not accept an outline that means, in practice, an end to the fighting while Hamas retains its hold on power over at least parts of the Gaza Strip. There are reasons to believe that the Egyptians themselves, regardless of their formal position, share the understanding (as do others in the Arab world) that the future of the region may well depend on Israel’s ability to dismantle Hamas.
Thus, writes Lerman, Israel should strive to bring Egypt “into the inner circle of consultations on ‘the day after’ in Gaza, after the Americans but ahead of others,” and offer it “a vision whereby northern Sinai, which saw . . . intensive warfare between the regime and Islamic State, can become a vital logistical and economic hinterland for the reconstruction effort in Gaza, with significant benefits for all.”
Read more on Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security: https://jiss.org.il/en/lerman-egypt-faces-economic-and-strategic-challenges/