It is a completely unrealistic war aim for Israel to expect to rid the entire Gaza Strip of Hamas, according to the government of Egypt.
Officials in Cairo continue to issue this same warning, in so many words, as the United States pushes full-steam ahead with plans to not only help Israel with its mission but also to set up the U.S. military in the besieged enclave once all is said and done.
Like many other countries in the surrounding area, Egypt is eager to end the war, which is raging just across its border – but to a degree that the U.S. and other Western powers were not expecting.
Israel is dead-set on taking Gaza by force while displacing everyone who currently lives there into Sinai. Egypt has long worried about a long-running war like this that it says could destabilize the Sinai region with domestic spillover among its own population, which mostly supports the Palestinian cause.
"The war, and Israel's more aggressive actions and statements, have made Egypt ... and most Arab countries rethink their policies toward Israel," Ayman Zaineldine, a former senior Egpytian diplomat, is quoted as saying.
"The push to expel Palestinians from Gaza showed that Israel can be a direct threat to Egypt's national security."
(Related: Syria and Yemen appear to be joining the fight in the Israel-Gaza war.)
If Israel goes ahead with Sinai relocation plan, millions of Egyptians will "go out and protest," warns President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi
Earlier this month, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi "affirmed and reiterated its complete rejection of the forced displacement of Palestinians and their exodus to Egyptian lands in Sinai, as this is nothing but a final liquidation of the Palestinian cause."
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More recently, el-Sisi threatened that millions of his own people will absolutely "go out and protest ... if called upon to do so," if Israel follows through with its plan of forced displacement of the residents of Gaza.
Israel's response to this has been to float around a bribe, of sorts, regarding Egypt's international debts through the World Bank, illustrating the power Israel holds over the usurious global financial system.
Egypt is also waiting to see if any countries in the European Union (EU) end up accepting any of the refugees instead – because usually the predominantly white countries end up getting dumped with refugees by the global power brokers.
"You can bet that if Egypt had agreed to what Israel wanted, they wouldn't be in the dire economic straits they are today," commented Mirette Mabrouk, director of the Middle East Institute's Egypt programme.
"But Egypt pushed back quite hard. I don't think the financial incentives are going to sway them."
Another plan that Egypt has rejected involved having Egypt itself manage the security of the Gaza Strip until the Palestinian Authority (PA) can take over, if and when Hamas is defeated – should that ever actually happen, of course.
"I have no doubt Egypt will not allow Israel to outsource security of the Gaza Strip ... That would make Egypt complicit in Israel's illegal occupation," Zaineldine added, noting that this plan poses a "direct threat" to Egypt's national security.
Another fear of Egypt is that going along with the Sinai resettlement plan could result in an influx of Palestinian fighters against Israel, but from the south. From the north, this has already happened in Lebanon, which is destabilizing its national security as well.
"The pushback Sisi faces to forced displacement is first and foremost coming from within the military," says Khaled Fahmy, an expert on Egypt at Tufts University, about the situation. "For Egypt's military, Sinai is a red line."
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