The ‘alternate’ Palestinian homeland

Suddenly, without warning, Israeli Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office Ayoob Kara tweeted that Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi offered Israel parts of Sinai to annex to Gaza in order to create a Palestinian state, and that the US and Israeli governments are looking into the offer. His words travelled at the speed of light and spread via various international and Arab media outlets and news agencies.

This coincided with Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to America and his meeting with US President Donald Trump, as well as the White House’s statement that Trump may abandon the idea establishing two states in the occupied territories. This two-state solution was the idea, or drug, used by successive American presidencies after the signing of the ill-fated Oslo Accords to pacify the Arabs in general, and the Palestinians in particular, with false promises of establishing an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital. They gave the Palestinians a fake authority with a president who follows their instructions and cannot move around or take actions without permission from Israel.

What Kara said about Al-Sisi’s offer is not new, as the phony president Mahmoud Abbas said this about a year ago. He said that Al-Sisi offered him parts of Sinai to annex to Gaza on which he could establish a Palestinian state, but he refused this. However, Abbas’s statement did not gain much momentum in the media. Perhaps Kara’s statement gained media attention because the situation on the ground is conducive to such statements, which wasn’t the case a year ago.

The land has been prepared for this, as the tunnels were destroyed, a buffer zone was established, and the people of Rafah and Sheikh Zuweid were expelled, making the city completely empty of people. Moreover, the general atmosphere in Egypt has been prepared by means of the shameless pro-coup media outlets and their daily claims that terrorism is coming to Egypt from the Sinai and Gaza. Many of these media outlets have demanded that the Sinai, Egyptian territory, be attacked, and a retired general was hosted on these pro-coup programmes and referred to as a strategic expert, and then said that Egypt’s old map during the Ottoman rule did not include Sinai.

Watch: Minister claims Netanyahu and Trump to discuss Palestinian state in Sinai and Gaza

We must link all of these events to each other and take into consideration the failed attempted sale of Tiran and Sanafir to Saudi Arabia, which is actually a concession to Israel, while Saudi Arabia acts as an accessory to the concession. It will allow the Strait of Tiran to be regional waters rather than Egyptian waters falling under Egyptian sovereignty, giving Egypt the right to monitor and search ships passing through. Linking all of these events leads us to the truth, that Al-Sisi is giving life to the Zionist project of establishing an alternative homeland in Sinai, which was first proposed in the early 1950s, during Gamal Abdel Nasser’s rule. Palestinians in Gaza and the rest of the occupied Palestinian territories revolted in the form of massive demonstrations in protest of this project. The Deir Yassin massacre occurred in the aftermath of this.

Thus, the project is nothing new. What is actually new is the fact that the current Egyptian ruler is willing to implement the project to please the Zionists and in order to pull Egypt out of the current economic crisis suffocating the country. The people are incredibly angry due to the senseless increase in prices and inflation, and everyone, even Al-Sisi’s supporters, are in a state of anger at him that grows by the day. There has been news that he will receive $100 billion in exchange for selling land in the Sinai.

He had said in one of his speeches, “If I could sell myself, I would,” and we mocked him at the time. Jokes about him filled social networking sites and he was ridiculed, but now we can understand exactly what he meant by it. He didn’t say so spontaneously or jokingly. We are the foolish ones and he knew exactly what he was saying. His words were a prelude to the sale of the land, reinforced by his recent words to the Egyptians, mocking their poverty: “No one told you guys that you were really, really, really poor?”

All of this shows us his desire to sell parts of the Sinai, but wanting something and actually doing it are two different things. Not everyone who wants something can actually do it, and just like we stood in the way of him selling Tiran and Sanafir, the masses will revolt against him and he will not be able to achieve his desires, which are actually the desires of his Zionist masters. The Sinai will not be an alternate homeland to the Palestinians; Palestine is from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea, and it is their homeland to which they will return to, one day, but only God knows when that day will come.

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