A regime escaping from itself

Amid a crushing economic crisis, the likes of which has not been seen in Egypt before, the currency value has declined to an unprecedented low. The Egyptian Pound is now worth just 13 American cents ($1 = 7.83 EGP). This is due to the weakness of Egypt’s economic resources, a decline in revenue from the Suez Canal and the collapse of tourism since the Russian plane crash in Sinai and the kidnapping, torture and murder of Italian student Guilio Regeni. All have had a very negative direct impact on the economy and made matters worse in the country.

Given the fact that funding from the Gulf states which supported the 2013 coup, especially Saudi Arabia, has stopped (Egypt’s relationship with the Saudis is at a crossroads because the government in Cairo supports Bashar Al-Assad in Syria and the Houthis in Yemen), the political and economic crisis in Egypt has found no warm heart other than Israel’s. An ex-Israeli ambassador has even said that the two are so close that Egypt and Israel share a bed. According to a former senior Egyptian intelligence officer, Israel and Egypt are neighbours and have a common enemy. As if to emphasise this point, and to solidify this relationship and make it even more intimate, the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas, has been accused of being involved in the murder of Egyptian Attorney General Hisham Barakat, who was assassinated in June last year. The accusation comes eight months after the killing and despite the fact that it was reported at the time that a former army officer was the assassin.

Only a few days after Barakat’s murder, an apartment in 6th October City was raided and 9 individuals inside were killed on the basis that they were responsible for killing the attorney general. Three other people were later killed in Al-Maadi neighbourhood, also under the pretext that they had killed him. Now, just a few days ago, the Egyptian interior minister announced that the Muslim Brotherhood, with the help of Hamas, killed Hisham Barakat. Two students from Al-Azhar University Medical School, each exhibiting signs that they had been tortured, were paraded in front of the media and “confessed” that they were trained in Gaza and given instructions from an Egyptian doctor who fled to Turkey. Few will believe their shoddily-constructed story, which is intended to revive the image of the Brotherhood as a “terrorist” organisation, following months during which references to the movement in official statements have fallen away and the focus has shifted to fighting against Daesh in the Sinai Peninsula. Hamas has been dragged into all of this in order to cement its image as a “terrorist” group to please the Israelis; Egypt’s vision and perspective must match Israel’s now that Cairo and Tel Aviv are sleeping in the same bed.

Why are Egypt and Israel working hard to put the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas back to the top of the international terrorism list? Quite simply because they want the green light to invade the Gaza Strip and fight the movement. Egypt has worked eagerly to satisfy Israel’s every demand; this was expressed by an Israeli official who said that Egypt has done everything Israel has asked it to, from destroying the tunnels to expelling the inhabitants of Rafah and establishing a buffer zone. Now Egypt is changing the educational curriculum to include the Camp David Accords.

Why wouldn’t Egypt do everything Israel asks of it? Well, they are sharing a bed now and have to meet each other’s needs, don’t they? And what, you may ask, has Egypt got out of this cosy arrangement? Very little, if anything at all, although it is worth pointing out that Tawfik Okasha MP was dismissed from parliament recently (so much for democracy) for revealing that Benjamin Netanyahu set up Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi’s meeting with US President Barack Obama on the fringes of the UN General Assembly to keep Egypt happy. The people of Egypt must be very pleased to hear this as the economy collapses around their ears. Al-Sisi is heading a regime that is escaping from itself.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.