In 1979, Egypt made peace with Israel, a country it wanted to annihilate.
It wasn’t for lack of trying. Egypt only did so after losing several wars with Israel at a huge cost in military – soldiers and equipment – land (which Israel actually gave back to Egypt to make peace), and international prestige. But peace was made, and has held for the last 45 years…
…sort of.
Now we find out that while there has been no fighting between the countries, Egypt may have surreptitiously supported Hamas by allowing all sorts of material into Gaza through underground tunnels.
Bonnie Glick, writing for frontpagemag.com, has put out a truly disturbing article about this.
Here are several key excerpts:
In the lead up to the Israel Defense Forces’ (IDF) operation to destroy Hamas and secure the release of over 100 hostages – including 8 Americas – believed to be in and around Rafah, leaders around the world from Joe Biden to the collective leftist leaders of the European Union to Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi panicked and ordered Israel to forestall its necessary means to end the war.
Why did world leaders clamor for Israel to do nothing?
What are they hiding?
It turns out they are hiding a lot.
On the IDF’s first day of entry into Rafah in mid-May they discovered hundreds of tunnels with over 50 two-way underground tunnels between Rafah and Egypt. Dozens more cross-border tunnels have been discovered since, along the Rafah-Egypt border. Some tunnels were paved and wide enough for passage of full-sized cargo trucks. The IDF also found more gruesome evidence of Hamas’s barbarism, the bodies of hostages stolen from Israel on October 7, 2023. Some, like Shani Louk, had been raped, dismembered, and murdered with her corpse paraded into Gaza as a trophy by the barbarous terrorists, others were tortured in the tunnels and murdered there. Beyond hostage remains, the IDF seized hundreds of weapons and war materiel They discovered UN relief packages, food, cash, electrification, housing, office space, etc. An underground metropolis was built by Hamas in Rafah.
The construction of Gaza’s underground cities is of particular interest to Egyptian financial concerns. Egyptians are renowned for their above-ground pyramids. As it turns out, they know there is value to building below ground as well. In the Middle East marketplace, the souk culture is all about the baksheesh (bribery).
Every day there is additional evidence of Egyptian smuggling in Gaza. Intelligence on May 31, 2024 uncovered surface to air missiles smuggled into Rafah from Egypt. The large cache purportedly would have been used to take down IDF helicopters. How much money changed hands for Egypt to have turned a blind eye (or been complicit) in these types of smuggling operations?
Trafficking helps explain Egypt’s desperate moves, down to its clumsy diplomatic effort. The embarrassment to rain down on Egypt’s government for its perfidy toward Israel and its American patron will be catastrophic reputationally and financially for the al-Sisi family.
That troubling enough for you?
Let me again emphasize that, on the surface (take that perceptually and physically both) Israel and Egypt are at peace.
Let’s hope that this peace – which has certainly benefited both countries – stays intact. And that Egypt helps the prospects for continuing peace along by no longer finding ways of supplying hamas.
