Egyptian President Calls Israel an ‘Enemy’ for the First Time Since 1977
Sept. 20—Addressing the Emergency Arab League-Organization for Islamic Cooperation summit in Doha Sept. 15, Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi urged that an Arab-Islamic regional collective security mechanism be established. “Unchecked Israeli recklessness and its increasingly inflated arrogance” is plunging the region into an uncontrollable spiral of escalation which is “utterly unacceptable and cannot be tolerated…. We must change how the enemy perceives us. They should see an Arab nation stretching from the Atlantic to the Gulf, united under a single umbrella that includes all Islamic states."
Diaa Rashwan, the head of Egypt’s State Information Service (SIS), emphasized Sept, 16 the significance of the President’s use of the term “enemy.”
“This is the first time a President of Egypt has used this word since [former Egyptian President Anwar] Sadat announced he would go to Jerusalem. The choice is intentional—our national security is under threat, and only an enemy can threaten national security,” Rashwan told Extra News, Al-Ahram reported. Sadat’s Nov. 19-21, 1977 visit was the first step towards Egypt’s peace treaty with Israel, signed in March 1979.
El-Sisi charged that Israel’s strike on Doha “irrefutably demonstrates that Israel’s actions have abandoned all political or military rationale and have brazenly crossed every red line,” violating international law and the UN Charter and establishing a perilous precedent. It also made clear that Israel is deliberately sabotaging all efforts to reach a ceasefire in Gaza.
The Egyptian President addressed the people of Israel directly, warning them that Israel’s actions threaten their security, could “abort existing peace accords with the nations of the region,” and lead to a regional conflict in which “we will all pay, without exception…. Therefore, do not allow the peace efforts of your predecessors to come to nought, for a time will come when remorse is utterly futile.”
“It has become imperative to establish an Arab-Islamic mechanism for coordination and cooperation to enable us all to confront the major security, political and economic challenges surrounding us,” el-Sisi stated. He pointed to “The Common Vision for Security and Cooperation in the Region,” a joint Egyptian-Saudi resolution adopted by the Arab League Council on Sept. 5, as “a vital foundation” for what he was proposing, and specified that “implementation mechanisms” are required.
State Information Service head Rashwan explained that el-Sisi “did not explicitly revive” the proposal to create a “joint Arab military force” which the Arab League has debated since 2015. Instead, he “envisions a phased framework: starting with Gulf states, then expanding to the Arab League, and later including major Muslim countries like Pakistan, Türkiye, and Iran.” Rashwan emphasized that Arab-Islamic unity is necessary because Israeli Prime Minister, the Butcher of Gaza, Benjamin Netanyahu is a believer in “Greater Israel,” which lays claim to land from six of Israel’s neighbors, an ideology, he noted, which “mirrors Hitler’s expansionism.” Rashwan reminded that the 1950 Arab Joint Defense and Economic Cooperation Treaty states that an attack on one Arab country is an attack on them all, and reported that Gulf Cooperation Council states are now questioning whether to maintain their agreements with Israel.
"el-Sisi intended to deliver a warning not just to the Israeli's but to their putative backers in the Trump Administration," said a source close to the now stalled negotiation process on Gaza. "He was telling them that that Trump's entire vision for a peaceful Mideast region, that would become a new place for cooperative investment in projects that would make Americans billions in profits, could go up in smoke if Bibi is not placed under controls and Israel forced to seriously negotiate for an end to this murderous and genocidal war.
"He made this statement in part to appease forces inside Egypt which believe that el-Sisi had not been strong enough in defending Palestinian interests, and that this was encouraging the nutcases in Israel to believe that they could take steps to kill the Palestinian state," the source continued. "In fact, it is still the case that el-Sisi could be ousted by the military if Israel annexes the West Bank, or moves to place settlement in Gaza. If those things occur, Israel might find itself at war with Egypt. This has made an impression on the White House."