On March 26, 1979, Israel and Egypt signed a peace treaty. Now, with Israel military Forces operating in Rafah, it is clear that Egypt breached that treaty. Rafah conceals an arms supply network between Southern Gaza and Egypt.
The agreement between Israel and Egypt stipulated that Egypt would leave Sinai demilitarized.
What is clear now is that Egypt allowed the Gaza-ruling Hamas to build cross-border tunnels into Sinai. Some of those tunnels are large enough for a vehicle to drive in them and certainly arms and explosive materials could be smuggled through them.
Article 5 of the Peace Agreement stipulates: “Cooperation for Development and Good Neighborly Relations. The Parties will cooperate in promoting peace, stability and development in their region.”
Turning a blind eye while Hamas armed itself through Gaza’s border with Egypt breached the “promoting peace and stability” clause.
Article III of the Peace Agreement stipulates: “The Parties recognize and will respect each other’s right to live in peace within their secure and recognized boundaries; they will refrain from the threat or use of force, directly or indirectly. Each Party undertakes to ensure that acts or threats of belligerency, hostility, or violence do not originate from and are not committed from within its territory, or by any forces subject to its control or by any other forces stationed on its territory, against the population, citizens or property of the other Party. Each Party also undertakes to refrain from organizing, instigating, inciting, assisting or participating in acts or threats of belligerency, hostility, subversion or violence against the other Party, anywhere, and undertakes to ensure that perpetrators of such acts are brought to justice.”
By turning a blind eye while Hamas armed itself to the hilt in order to attack Israel, Egypt breached its commitment to ensure that acts or threats of belligerency, hostility, or violence did not originate from its territory.
Now there are rumours that Egypt has threatened to void its decades-old peace treaty with Israel. The treaty also allowed Israel to freely pass through the Suez Canal, and it conditioned Israel’s withdrawal from the Sinai Peninsula.
The question is why did Egypt show weak knees in response to Israel’s military operation in Rafah.
The question has been answered in the ICJ (International Court of Justice).
South Africa Against Israel
South Africa has been highly critical of Israel’s military operation in Gaza. While the governing African National Congress (ANC) has a long history of solidarity with the Arab cause [to subvert and eventually destroy Israel], as a signatory to the UN’s 1948 Genocide Convention, it claims to have an obligation to act.
South Africa also objected to Israel’s military operation in Rafah, the last stage of the war to eliminate Hamas’s military capability.
Subsequently South Africa applied to the ICJ accusing Israel of carrying out “genocidal” operations in Gaza, and demanded that Israel “must be ordered to stop.”
Dr. Gilad Noam to ICJ
On May 10, 2024 in the case South Africa v. Israel, the ICJ held a public hearing on the request submitted by South Africa.
Israel was represented in the sham ICJ hearing by Dr. Gilad Noam, Deputy Attorney General (International Law) and professor in the Faculty of Law at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Dr. Noam’s research interests are international law and international criminal law.
On behalf of Israel, Dr. Noam delivered Israel’s defense.
Dr. Noam outlined Israel’s stance on the application of the Genocide Convention and challenged South Africa’s allegations.
He addressed Israel’s unwavering commitment to international law applied in war and its humanitarian efforts while highlighting South Africa’s egregious exploitation of the Genocide Convention.
Dr. Noam emphasized Israel’s right to self-defense and the ongoing efforts to mitigate civilian harm while confronting a vicious terrorist army and emphasizing the importance of factual accuracy and legal integrity in this conflict.
Israel’s Findings During The Rafah Operation
On 6 May 2024, Israel began a military offensive in and around the eastern part of the city of Rafah.
Dr. Gilad Noam revealed at the ICJ hearing that so far Israel has discovered nearly 700 Hamas terror tunnel shafts in Rafah, with approximately 50 tunnels crossing into Egypt.
Those tunnels were used to smuggle weapons to Hamas and can also be used to smuggle senior Hamas terrorists in and out of Gaza. They may also have been used to smuggle out of Gaza Israeli hostages whom Hamas terrorists abducted to Gaza in its October 7, 2023 invasion into Israel.
Why Did Egypt Not Open the Rafah Crossing Gate
The terrorist tunnels connecting Hamas and Egypt are a joint terrorism cartel industry.
Apart from more than 700 terror tunnel shafts and 50 tunnels extending under the Rafah border into Egypt, corrupt Egyptians were smuggling artillery and equipment to Hamas in Gaza, breaking the peace agreement clauses between Israel and Egypt.
Who Escaped Southern Gaza
The revelation of the tunnels means there is the possibility that Hamas leaders, whom Israel seeks to capture or eliminate, and the Israeli hostages in Hamas captivity, were smuggled out of Gaza into Egypt.
Keep in mind that Egypt set itself up as a mediator in the negotiations to get the Israeli hostages released.
Egypt claimed that in 2016 it flooded and closed all those tunnels. As it turned out, that was a lie. What the Egyptians did instead, was to support an industry of death that grew to become a terror monstrosity.
More so, Egypt refused to allow Gazan civilians who wished to evacuate themselves temporarily from a war zone or leave for good through that border unless they paid $5,000 a person to the smuggling crime cartel.
Egypt-Hamas Collaboration
By disallowing Gazans to leave, Egypt collaborated with Hamas which needed the Gaza civilians as human shields, and each body counts.
These facts show that Egypt supported the Hamas terrorists. They allowed Hamas to thrive and gain the weapons they used to often perpetrate terror incursion and rocket firing on Israeli civilians.
The “Open-air Prison” Lie
Gaza is often called the world’s largest open-air prison. World media said the prison was controlled by Israel, and Israel would not allow Gazans to leave.
It is now clear that it was a media lie.
With 50 tunnels from Rafah into Egypt, it is clear that Hamas and Egypt prevented Gazan civilians from leaving. The civilians were needed both for propaganda and to be used as human shields.
Starving Gazans Needed For Propaganda
Also, the fake story of Gazans being starved to death doesn’t hold up. The 50 tunnels could easily have been used to bring food into Gaza. If the Gazans were starving, Egypt and Hamas could have easily stopped that, but they needed starving kids for their propaganda.
Also because of Hamas’s ongoing terror activities against Israel, Gaza was under Israel’s Surveillance and blockade. Egypt is rightfully accused of supporting genocidal Hamas by helping them imprison the Gazans in that small strip of land with no way out.
But there is more.
Egyptian Smuggling Industry
The Egyptian smuggling industry into and out of Gaza, by the corrupt cartel, has been an enrichment industry making millions in currency from Gazans’ misery.
The Egyptian company Hala, has been charging Gazans $5,000 to $10,000 per adult and $2,500 for a child to flee Gaza. The price has increased 14-fold since the war began and it is the only option for many Gaza families seeking relocation and a better life.
Egypt Joined South Africa at the ICJ
Trying to escape responsibility for all the above mentioned crimes, Egypt recently joined South Africa in the ICJ circus case of lies about Israel.
On May 12, 2024, the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed that Egypt had joined South Africa’s International Court of Justice (ICJ) genocide case against Israel.
It is clear that Egypt’s objection to the IDF operation in Rafah is probably because it did not want the truth to be revealed.
“Don’t” Does Not Work When Your Life Is at Stake
Here is why Israel going against the world on Rafah has turned out to be a very good move:
The scandalous delay in arms shipments to Israel bought Israel public support in the US, at the expense of the Biden administration. The arms shipment will eventually arrive in Israel. More so, due to the negative effect in American public opinion, the Biden administration will not again be in a hurry to delay further arms shipments due for Israel.
As Senator Cotton said in a recent press conference: “[Israel] you do not have a problem with America, you have a problem with Joe Biden, Chuck Schumer and the democrat party; it will be solved in six months.”
The Arab countries’ spectators witnessed Israel successfully standing its ground against the world. This move brought Israel grace points toward normalization with Saudi Arabia and other Muslim countries.
The pressure put on Israel regarding the IDF operation in Rafah has actually decreased with the evidence brought into the open. Less or no vocal pressure will help Israel to complete its war goals faster.
Why Try Save Hamas?
The Biden Administration’s attempts to stop Israel from entering Rafah and to stop the war without eliminating Hamas military capabilities, by escaping from a discussion of the main topic and diverting attention to another matter, did not work.
The US claim that to evacuate the Rafah residents would take months was wrong. The evacuation took Israel two weeks.
As of this writing, the Deir al-Balah area, in the center of the Gaza Strip, is being filled with Gazans from Rafah tents. Rafah is almost empty of the “non-involved.”
The claim that there is a shortage of humanitarian aid, mind you, the aid the US would have never supplied had it been in such war circumstances, ended up in the hands of Hamas who caused the supposed shortage. The IDF found untold tons of humanitarian aid in the Hamas terror tunnels in the Rafah area which, upon its arrival, Hamas operatives stole, sometimes at gunpoint, from the Gazans.
All these distractions were to save Hamas, which by US, the European Union, United Kingdom, Argentina, Australia, Canada, Japan, Paraguay, and New Zealand terminology is a designated terrorist organization.
Advice to Egypt
Hamas’ days are numbered. Egypt’s reason not to proscribe Hamas openly was their influence, playing a mediator between Hamas and Israel.
It is time for Egypt to distance itself from Hamas, take the Abraham Accords as a model, clean up the deeply rooted Antisemitism within Egyptian society and build a people-to-people sustainable peace with Israel from which both countries will gain.
Rafah and the Philadelphi Corridor
The Philadelphi Corridor is Israel’s ace in the war.
The Philadelphi Corridor is an important route from where Israel can control the movement of people and goods across borders. One purpose of the corridor is to prevent the movement of illegal materials and people between Egypt and the Gaza Strip., effectively controlling Hams rearming itself.
With Israel capturing and controlling Rafah and the Philadelphi Corridor Israel can begin putting order to the years of terror launched at her from Gaza, with Egypt aiding and abetting it.
