Page 27 - Issue 72

V O L .1 E L I T E ISSUE 72

aimed at inciting the Egyptian and Arab and after 2011 it was bought back from
people against Egypt, taking advantage of Israel at elevated prices, which accuses the
the protests that occurred last month in government of wasting national resources.
front of Egyptian embassies in several The reality, from my perspective, lies in the
countries. government's mismanagement of its
resources, as the decision was made under

This deal is expected to negatively affect the belief that Egypt had self-sufficiency in
the Palestinian issue by weakening Egypt's gas following the discovery of several fields.
However, this situation did not last long,
negotiating position with Israel.
turning Egypt from a regional export hub
Furthermore, the legal framework of this
into an importer or transit country. For this
deal impedes international recognition of
reason, the mistake must not be repeated to
Palestine, especially from European
avoid provoking the Egyptian public.
countries that benefit from this deal. This
is because the pipelines pass through
Palestine’s territorial waters, which
violates international law, meaning that

their recognition of Palestine as an
independent sovereign state would
constitute a challenge to the legitimacy of
this deal.
The Egyptian public’s rejection of this

deal can be justified, despite the energy
and electricity crisis that Egyptians are
suffering from, by their perception of
Israel as an eternal enemy. This perception
has its roots in both history and the After discussing the main features of this
issue, we have the opportunity to say – from
present reality. What fuels Egyptian anger
a personal perspective – that political or
is the timing of the deal, which coincides
military conflict does not necessarily
with the Gaza war. This makes any deal
eliminate other areas of cooperation. The
with Israel be seen as “a betrayal of the
evidence for this is abundant, most notably
cause” or “economic normalization at the
the U.S.-China relations, where, despite
expense of the Palestinians.”
strategic competition and disputes over
Furthermore, part of the Egyptian
Taiwan, the South China Sea, and the trade
public believes that the government sold
war since 2018, both remain each other’s
Egyptian gas to Israel at a meager price
largest trading partners, with trade volume
before 2011, exceeding $600 billion annually, despite the
sanctions and restrictions that U.S.
companies still impose on the Chinese

market and vice versa. However, the matter
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becomes more complex when hatred
transcends governments and reaches the