Egypt, talk Rafah to me

Egypt, how do you explain Rafah?

In my lifetime, you negotiated a basic peace with Israel. I remember when the maps of Israel changed at my synagogue and Sunday school. I believe this was during a phase, much like a domestic violence victim who finally gets enough teeth to keep their abuser at bay, where Israel would accept any nonsense to be left alone. We know many domestic abuse survivors leave their abuser with little more than the clothes on their back. Israel got off a little bit better with you, Egypt. Except for the Gaza Strip; particularly Rafah.

Rafah has long been a border town between two peoples, but for a time it was all Egypt. Egypt controlled the Gaza Strip and Rafah from before 1948 until 1967; minus a year when Israel had control but was pressured to give it back to Egypt. To give it back! To Egypt, not Palestine. During that time, Egypt, you made sure there was no Palestine in the Gaza Strip. During your control of the Gaza Strip, Egypt, you not only refused Palestinians in the Gaza Strip their sovereignty, but you denied them any citizenship to Egypt. And then with the Camp David Accords, you got away with ditching the Gaza Strip including half of Rafah, and all the problems you created there.

Egypt, you were one of the most advanced civilizations on earth, with a world-famous ancient religion and STEM culture that flourished for thousands of years before the birth of Islam. Surely, as you can erect pyramids, you can erect a basic war ethic. Your Pharaohs are rolling in their sarcophagi that you would refuse land and people to dominate. With your mighty 111 million people, you can’t handle a few million outsiders. Actually, neighbors, with a common modern faith, culture, and before 1979, government. Whose grandparents and parents sent their bills and love letters from addresses in Rafah and Gaza, Egypt.

Unlike Jordan, Egypt has a long standing history in its own right. Egyptians have been around for thousands of years. Unlike Jordan, it makes sense, in Egypt, for there to be a possible difference between an Egyptian and a Palestinian. But now that Rafah is in the spotlight, it makes no sense to cut a city in half that you had previously united under your control. A united Rafah was probably a good idea. All Egypt. Imagine the tax headaches that were saved for awhile.

I see you are having an el-Sisi fit about what to do with Rafah, portraying Israel as the villian. Why is anyone surprised? You and the Arab League can say they called boycotts against Israel  before it was Instagram and campus cool. Before Israel was even a formal country.

Israel has been free from your direct violence since the 1970’s, but has still had to endure your toxic passive aggression and games with the Gaza Strip, as your country descends into less than a shred of its former glory.

Why are you trapping Rafah City residents and other Gazans on one side of a fence when you used to claim the whole region? Why are you hassling Israel at every step since October 7 when you need them to help you patrol the Sinai desert from radical terror? You owe the Gaza Strip, the city of Rafah, and all Palestinians a blood debt; reparations for your crimes against them. Compared to Israel, Egypt is massive. It’s time for you to stop making problems, make room for your cultural cousins from the Gaza Strip, and work with Israel on the shared mission of neutralizing terror along your shared border.