TheAltWorld Egypt’s puzzling passivity
How many more Israeli outrages can Cairo take lying down?
The Egyptian authorities are making a big mistake by continuing to play down and cover up the Israeli attack that targeted one of its army units at the Rafah crossing on Monday, leading to the death of 22-year-old soldier Ramadan Kareem.
The country is seething with anger, as was partially reflected by the thousands of people who attended his burial in his home village (he was denied an official military funeral). They chanted slogans supporting the resistance in Gaza and hailing the fallen martyr, in scenes recalling the spirit of the October war, the steadfastness of the people of the Suez Canal cities during the war of attrition, and the earlier Suez War.
I do not understand why the Egyptian media has maintained a news blackout about the soldier’s heroic action. The army sufficed with issuing a two-line statement about one of its ‘elements’ having died in an ‘incident’, when he did it proud by fighting back against an Israeli unit that tried to violate Egypt’s territory and sovereignty.
It was left to the Hebrew media to inform us that this young conscript opened fire on an attacking Israeli force, injuring several of its members. The Egyptian authorities have so far kept silent, saying they are continuing to investigate the matter and not even naming the fallen soldier, as though he were a criminal rather than a martyr who died defending his country.
The once great Egyptian army did nothing to prevent Israel’s humiliating and provocative violation of its national territory by occupying the Salaheddin (Philadelphi) corridor. It declined to force open the Rafah crossing to allow humanitarian relief to reach more than two million besieged and starving people, or act to halt Israel’s war of annihilation and ethnic cleansing against a fellow Arab people.
What more needs to happen before it finally intervenes?
I am not an advocate of war and want nothing but security, stability, and prosperity for Egypt and its people. But there is a limit to how many outrages can be taken lying down. States cannot afford to forfeit their leadership responsibilities or hesitate to take up arms when compelled.
It is depressing to hear the Egyptian military spokesman say that investigations are underway into the killing of the Egyptian soldier. The incident does not need investigating: it’s as clear as day. It needs an immediate and firm response that teaches the Israeli forces a lesson. Feeble reactions like these only encourage them to continue their aggression, invade Egypt’s territory, and violate the peace agreements between the two sides.
The Gaza Strip, which despite its immense suffering is continuing to resist the Israeli onslaught and inflict humiliating losses on the invaders, is the first line of defence for Egypt’s national security. It has always been so throughout history since ancient times. It is not in the interest of Egypt, with its massive and well-equipped military, to leave its people to fight alone and abandon them to their fate.
The Egyptian leadership needs to act decisively to put an end to these outrages, using the only language this criminal enemy understands: the language of force as employed in the Suez War, the War of Attrition, and the October War that overran the Bar-Lev Line? A single Egyptian shell fired against this arrogant aggressor would be enough to drive Israel into a panic, and send millions of its settlers scurrying into shelters or flocking to Ben-Gurion airport to seek safe havens in Europe whence they came.
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