Egypt seeks to win back Palestinian trust by opening Rafah: Analyst

Press TV has conducted an interview with Hazem Salem, a political activist and commentator in Cairo, about the Egyptian government’s reopening of the Rafah border crossing with the Israeli-blockaded Gaza Strip.

The following is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: Egypt has decided to open the crossing for three days. Why do we see that it seems to becoming more and more rare that the Rafah crossing is opened by Cairo?

Salem: Well the fact is that the escalation against the Gaza Strip and the Palestinians has failed. There were numerous signs of that escalation once when an Egyptian court decided that Hamas is a terrorist organization and the death sentences against president Morsi and his people included people from Hamas and from Hezbollah.

After that, the escalation failed and the Israelis themselves, one of the Israeli top officials said that we should start talking to Hamas, hinting that it will not be with the mediation of Egypt or through Egypt. And because of that failed escalation and the siding out of the Egyptian role between Hamas and Israel, Egypt tries to [act softer]. Then another court said that it has no authority to decide whether Hamas is terrorist or not and Egypt instead of once opening the Gaza Strip Rafah Crossing on one side, now it is opening on both sides. Egypt tries to regain its role because it is outcast by the Israelis and it is not trusted by the Palestinians.  

Press TV: You made a couple of points about Egypt being mistrusted by the Palestinians and even the Egyptians themselves. What is the cost that Egypt is paying for what appears to be a strong alliance with Israel because the closure of borders with Gaza definitely means playing into the hands of Israel and its strangulation techniques used against the Palestinians in Gaza?

Salem: It went to even more than that. It went to seeing the Egyptian leadership and the Egyptian regime saying that it will care for the security of Israel, and it will cripple Hamas in order to care for the security of Israel. It went to that far, and because of that, the Palestinians would not believe anymore in any role of Egypt.

Saudi Arabia itself tried to mediate with the Egyptian side saying, that ‘you should talk to Hamas,’ and the Egyptian side said ‘impossible.’ Saudi Arabia made that move when it was embarrassed when Israel revealed the secret talks between Saudi officials and the Israeli ones. 

So Egyptians lost their credibility and thus they lost their role –I mean the Egyptian regime - and they lost face among the Egyptian public as well. So trying to win that back by opening the Rafah Crossing was just a desperate move and this means that the resistance imposed its own stance on both Israel and its allies in the Arab world including the Egyptian regime. 

AHK/MKA

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