February 9, 2020

AXIS OF EVIL:

The US bought Sisi for $9bn, but the Egyptian people cannot be swayed (Amelia Smith, February 9, 2020, Middle East Monitor)

Since he came to power, Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi's rule has been decidedly anti-Palestinian. When Egypt's military overthrew Mohamed Morsi on 3 July 2013, one of the first things the generals did was close the Rafah Crossing and deport Palestinians arriving in the country through Cairo Airport. [...]

The price for Egypt's position was $9 billion, the amount promised at the economic workshop for the deal of the century in Bahrain last summer. It's a big chunk of money for Egypt, given the dire straits it has found itself in under Al-Sisi's mismanagement of the economy, and should provide some generous bonuses for the ruling generals, who we know through the whistleblower Mohamed Ali are getting rich through corruption and at the expense of their own people.

For its part, Israel has achieved political and economic gains it never imagined could be possible. This has been described as the golden age of Israeli-Egyptian relations symbolised by the transfer of Tiran and Sanafir islands to Saudi Arabia, which opened up the Straits of Tiran to Israel, and compounded by security cooperation between the Egyptian and Israeli army in Sinai.

As Yehya Okail, a former MP in Sinai, once told me:

Hosni Mubarak was a treasure to Israel, however Sisi is much more than that. Israel never imagined that it would be served by anyone in the history of Egypt as Sisi has done.

The opponents of democracy in the Middle East are natural allies too.

Posted by at February 9, 2020 12:00 AM

  

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