Tensions between Israel and Egypt have been growing in recent days as the former has stepped up its military attacks on the city of Rafah. Egypt announced that it plans to join a genocide case against Israel that was first brought by South Africa.
Aid has accumulated on the Egyptian side of the Rafah crossing between southern Gaza and Egypt since Israel seized control of the crossing on May 7. Israel has said it is up to Egypt to allow a reopening of the crossing, which Cairo has said is a “desperate attempt” to scapegoat them for the blockage of aid.
Michael Maloof is a former senior security policy analyst in the office of the Secretary of Defense, and is also an author and regular contributing analyst on RT. On Wednesday, he joined Sputnik’s Fault Lines to discuss the growing tensions between Egypt and Israel.
“The Egyptians have been rather tolerant,” said Maloof. “They don't want the Israelis pushing Palestinians into the Sinai - that's their land now. They're not set up for it... And now you have the Israelis trying a form of ethnic cleansing, if you will. And this is now beginning to arouse the other Sunni countries in the region - not only Egypt, but also Saudi Arabia and a few others who are saying, ‘you just can't keep going on like this.’”
Egypt announced on Sunday that it would seek permission to join South Africa’s case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in which Israel has been accused of violating its obligations under the Genocide Convention. Earlier this year, Colombia and Turkiye also asked to join the case which was brought in January.
In their request to join South Africa’s case against Israel at the ICJ, Egypt commented on the “worsening severity and scope of Israeli attacks against Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip, and the continued perpetration of systematic practices against the Palestinian people, including direct targeting of civilians and the destruction of infrastructure in the Strip, and pushing Palestinians to flee.”
Egyptian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ahmed Abu Zeid added that Israel's actions in Gaza have “led to an unprecedented humanitarian crisis, creating unlivable conditions in the Gaza strip, blatantly violating international law, international humanitarian law, and the Fourth Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War.”
“I think [Egypt made] a reluctant decision. They thought maybe they could work with the Israelis, but I think they finally came to the conclusion that the Israelis were not in a listening mood,” the analyst said. “There was no give and take here and they finally decided that - probably - that the Israelis are hell bent on a genocide approach. And that's what the allegations of the ICC is all about. So I think they did it reluctantly because they wanted to maintain that peace agreement, the Camp David Accords.”
“But, as long as the Israelis are hell-bent on keeping out and pushing and bombing, there's no talk, there's no discussion. And, of course, the US continues to supply this. In the decades ahead, it's going to have a major impact on how the world views not only Israel, but also the US. If Israel still survives, I'm beginning to think that there's some question about that here.”
“If this thing escalates into a regional conflagration, but it seems to be heading in that direction, and if the Egyptians, who are right next door, begin to wash their hands of it, that's not a good sign,” he added. “I fully expect that the Egyptians will begin to move troops in and, because the concern is that Israelis could move into Sinai in order to get the Palestinians out of there and that's just not acceptable under any measure.”
Sputnik’s Jamarl Thomas then asked the show’s guest about US President Joe Biden’s decision to withhold weapons from Israel following their offensive action on Rafah.
“You can never mistrust them enough. And that appears to be what is occurring here with the Biden administration. They speak out of both ends of their mouth,” Maloof explained. “I think Biden is walking a delicate line. He wants to show support for Israel, on the one hand, but he's also got, internally, people screaming and yelling in his ear by the progressives at the universities."
“The problem is going to be that he's going to continue doing what he's doing, but in a subliminal way. There's not going to be any broadcasting, for example, slowing up of the 2,000-, 1,000-pound bombs,” he continued. “And when people's attention is away from it, then they just quietly move them in. He wants to give the impression that he doesn't want them all dropped on people in Rafah, but they can just line up a number of aircraft and just strafe the area and bomb whatever they have. They can get bombs from elsewhere, from the UK, for example. The UK has already said they're not going to hold up any shipments. So, it's all political trickery.”
Maloof addressed why the US is so dependent on ensuring its relationship with Israel. The US has maintained a steady flow of weapons to Israel worth billions of dollars, but major American weapons manufacturers have also benefited from the war in Gaza, including Lockheed Martin, RTX, Boeing, and General Dynamics which have all reportedly seen their stock prices skyrocket as a result of the destruction and war crimes in Gaza, a recent report addressed.
“The United States is too committed to Israel. Not only due to its lobbying efforts, but also our own defense contracting lobbyists on the Hill. They need to continue to stay in business. They need to thrive. Some of these, like Lockheed and all these, 90% of their income is from the US government. They need these contracts, and the only way you have them is by encouraging and fomenting conflict. And that's what we're seeing. We've had endless conflict now for 23 years.”
“And so, you know, and, we don't see any end to it. And now the Biden administration comes in, an administration that hasn't done anything to improve the plight of Americans generally, but has offered us now two wars that we're now and heartily engaged with. We've opened our borders, made us energy dependent again on Middle East countries, ironically, that can't wait to get off the US dollars. What we're seeing here is that, and we have inflation. I mean, where's the benefit that this administration is offering?”