New Egypt Confronts an Old Crisis
The New Egypt cannot ignore public opinion and seeks to broker a new role, rather than get drawn deeper into an old crisis, Bassem Sabry writes exclusively for Al-Monitor.
CAIRO — At the time of writing this article, Egypt remains at the heart of tense negotiations for a cease-fire between Hamas and Israel. The Israeli airstrikes on Gaza have thus far left more than 100 dead Palestinians, more severely injured, buildings and infrastructure with real damage, while Hamas’ rockets have caused five fatalities and a number of injuries on the Israeli side. The latest batch of news claims a cease-fire will take place tonight, and that “80%” of the details have been ironed out. Then again, nothing is certain in our times.
This is certainly not the first time that Egypt has found itself involved or caught in the middle between Israel and the Palestinians, and the Egyptian state certainly knows its way to a considerable extent around the Israeli-Palestinian maze. But the circumstances today are quite different from two years ago. Egypt today is a quite different Egypt from two years ago.
