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Analyst: Egypt Is Embarrassed to Admit Failure to Control Gaza Border
(Times of Israel) Dalia Ziada interviewed by Gianluca Pacchiani - Exiled Egyptian analyst Dalia Ziada told the Times of Israel in an interview: "Israel has helped Egypt in the past against Islamist militias in Sinai, and cooperation between the two countries has been very successful in the past. Why doesn't Egypt do the same with Israel now?" At the same time, Ziada noted that the rhetoric around Hamas has become more positive in official Egyptian media since Oct. 7. Hamas is no longer referred to as a terror organization but as a "resistance group," even though its gunmen have killed Egyptian soldiers and civilians in Sinai in the past. She said the reasons for Egypt's refusal to cooperate with Israel over the Philadelphi Corridor were opposition of Sinai Bedouin tribes, the embarrassment of the Egyptian leadership over its failure to secure its border with Gaza, and the potential backlash from Egyptian society and the Arab world. For at least two decades, Bedouin tribes in Sinai have profited from smuggling goods and weapons to Gaza. Despite an Egyptian effort in 2015 to flood the tunnels in cooperation with Israel, the tribes and Hamas found ways to resume operations within two years, thanks to the complacency of corrupt members of Egyptian security forces. "All the official statements coming out of Egypt are insisting that tunnels do not exist, despite the very clear footage that the IDF has shown of the tunnels," Ziada said. Ziada, an outspoken human rights activist and former director of a think tank that promotes liberal democracy, paid a heavy price for publicly condemning Hamas in her home country, Egypt. In the immediate aftermath of the Oct. 7 savagery, Ziada criticized Hamas and those who justified its actions, calling them "a partner in their crime." A few weeks later, Ziada gave interviews to an Israeli think tank and Israeli public television in which she justified Israel's military response against Hamas. The backlash was immediate. Complaints were filed with Egyptian prosecutors demanding she be put on trial as a spy for Israel and for inciting war crimes. After she received death threats, she was forced to flee and go into exile in Washington in November.