Middle East Press On: Hostage, Hamas, Weaponise, Ceasefire, Hypocrisy: New Age Islam's Selection, 17 March 2025
By New Age Islam Edit Desk
17 March 2025
Saving Hostages Or Destroying Hamas: Israel’s Toughest Choices
Israel Not Only Weaponises Humanitarian Aid, But Also Criminalises Those Who Deliver It
Direct US-Hamas Talks Break Israel’s Gaza Narrative Monopoly
Why Egypt Refuses To Administer Gaza
Egypt’s Gaza Strategy: Ceasefire Talks And A Bold Reconstruction Plan
The UK’s Inaction On Islamist Radicalism Is A Crisis For Israel And The West
The Hypocrisy Of The Human Rights Industrial Complex
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Saving Hostages Or Destroying Hamas: Israel’s Toughest Choices
By Susan Hattis Rolef
March 17, 2025
Even before 2023 came to an end, the argument regarding the order of priority among the goals of our war against Hamas – the destruction of Hamas as a fighting force and as a governing force versus the return of all the hostages, alive or dead – was already to be heard.
In general, the Center/Left has been inclined to argue that it is part of the Israeli ethos that we do not leave prisoners and captives in the hands of our enemies or Israelis in physical danger due to natural disasters or accidents.
It is usually right-wingers (though certainly not all right-wingers) who are inclined to argue that, in certain circumstances, prisoners and hostages should not be released at any price.
These circumstances involve the demand, by our enemies, for the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners and captives incarcerated by Israel after committing acts of terror against us, frequently involving murder, and who after their release are liable to return to committing acts of terror or worse (e.g. former Hamas head Yahya Sinwar) – in return for Israeli prisoners and hostages.
The statistics we have show that while 82% of the released prisoners remain in touch with the terrorist organizations they belonged to, on average, “only” 12% return to active terrorist activities. However, the figure of 82% dominates the rhetoric.
Regarding our hostages in the Gaza Strip, this very pertinent but painful situation has become much more charged, since all the live hostages – 24 out of the 59 – have been in captivity for over 528 days in inhuman living conditions, are all suffering from serious undernourishment, are in poor physical condition, and are not receiving any health care.
Last Wednesday, this impossible argument exploded once again when new Southern Command chief Maj.-Gen. Yaniv Asor stated that the first assignment of the IDF is to liquidate the Hamas terrorists, and the second is to return the hostages.
“The exact opposite, commander,” reacted the Hostages and Missing Families Forum. “These are grievous and irresponsible words, since if one is speaking of this order of priorities – a serious danger faces the lives of the hostages, and the ability to return the dead for proper burial. The first moral and ethical assignment under your responsibility is to return the 59 hostages, who have been rotting under Hamas captivity in Gaza for 523 days. Later on, destroy the Hamas regime. First the hostages – Hamas later.”
Releasing hostages vs. dismantling Hamas
The question now is whether Israel will manage to reach an agreement with Hamas regarding part or all of the remaining hostages before it is too late and what price it will be willing to pay. If Asor represents the position of the new top IDF command, and given Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s reservations over any feasible hostage deal, the prospect for those who place the hostages before the total eradication of Hamas is gloomy.
However, what complicates the situation is that it is not clear what destroying Hamas both as a fighting force and a governing force entails. Military experts keep telling us that the military capabilities of Hamas have been decimated, though it is still capable of carrying out terrorist activities.
What has not been destroyed is Hamas’s governing abilities. Despite the massive physical destruction of buildings, homes, and infrastructure, which the IDF has caused in the Gaza Strip (the exact figures are still in dispute), there is no doubt that most of the governing services still provided at some level in the Gaza Strip are provided by Hamas.
Though unlike his predecessor, the new chief of staff, Lt.-Gen. Eyal Zamir, has expressed his consent to the IDF participating in the distribution of humanitarian aid in the Gaza Strip, which could be viewed as a preface to some form of military administration there, let us not forget that during Joe Biden’s presidency, Netanyahu rejected the president’s prodding that Israel should start planning and implementing an alternative administrative apparatus for the Gaza Strip.
The result is that nothing appears to have been done, and it is thus not realistic to expect Hamas to be effectively ousted from all its administrative functions immediately.
But even if Israel, by means of the IDF or otherwise, starts creating some viable replacement for Hamas, who exactly would it approach with regards to releasing the hostages?
It isn’t clear whether even Hamas knows where all the hostages – dead or alive – are located. It is clear, however, that once Hamas is banished, the task of locating all the hostages might become much more complicated, if not impossible.
Since President Donald Trump returned to power in the US, and since Zamir replaced Herzi Halevi as chief of staff on March 5, the talk in Israel about not going through with the second stage of the hostage agreement, signed when Biden was still president, and the renewal of the fighting in the Gaza Strip, has intensified.
When exactly the fighting will be renewed is as yet unclear, and whether this is what Trump means when he speaks of “all hell breaking loose” unless Hamas releases all the hostages immediately (the first time he sounded this warning was on February 11) is also a riddle.
The latest information to emerge from the government several days ago is that Israel is preparing for “intense warfare” rather than “full-scale warfare,” apparently because a possible additional exchange of hostages and Palestinian prisoners has not been ruled out altogether.
At the time of writing, Hamas is reported to be offering a gesture of goodwill to the Americans in the form of the release of five hostages with American citizenship: one alive (Edan Alexander) and four bodies, while Israel is demanding the release of at least five live hostages and 10 bodies. Not surprisingly, the hostages’ families are deeply concerned about this state of affairs.
A last comment about Trump’s use of the threat of hell breaking loose on the Palestinians: Some say that with tens of thousands of Palestinians killed by the IDF in the Gaza Strip, and extensive destruction of buildings and infrastructure there, hell has already broken loose there – unfortunately, without any effect on the willingness of Hamas to return all the hostages without a complete end of hostilities and a complete Israeli withdrawal from the territory.
In the final reckoning, it is fair to say that the worst hell is being suffered by the remaining 22 live hostages being held by Hamas. That hell ought to be ended completely and immediately.
Over the years, the writer has held academic, administrative, and journalistic positions, the last one (1994-2010) in the Knesset library and Research and Information Center. She has published articles on Zionism, European politics, current affairs and Israeli politics, and several gooks in both Hebrew and English, the last of which was Israel’s Knesset Members - A Comparative Study of an Undefined Job.
https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-846251
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Israel Not Only Weaponises Humanitarian Aid, But Also Criminalises Those Who Deliver It
By Yvonne Ridley
March 16, 2025
During Ramadan, I tend to put down my pen and spend most working hours supporting charities operating in Palestine. These NGOs are not that popular with Labour’s liberal lefties who are afraid of helping anything or anyone linked to Gaza, such is the unrelenting intimidation from the Zionist lobby.
I quit the Labour Party in Britain years ago over the decision to drag the UK into an illegal war based on the lies about “weapons of mass destruction” in Saddam Hussein’s Iraq. It was a good call for me to resign before being pushed out, as many members, including dozens of Jews and former leader Jeremy Corbyn, MP, have since been hounded out of the party which is now under the control of confirmed Zionists. Pro-Israel lobby organisations fund more than half of Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Cabinet. This would, of course, be a huge media scandal if the UK Cabinet was under the influence of a foreign power, such as Moscow, for example, and not America’s and the UK’s favourite apartheid state.
Sorry, I digress, but there is a very serious connection here. I am writing now in response to the latest human rights atrocity and war crime carried out by the so-called “Israel Defence Forces” (the self-declared “most moral army in the world”).
A matter of hours ago, nine humanitarian aid workers and journalists were killed in Israeli missile strikes in the Gaza Strip. As we all know, Israel kills innocent civilians and has done day after relentless day for months, years, decades. There was even an almost copycat atrocity last April, when seven aid workers from the American charity World Central Kitchen (WCK) were murdered.
In this latest attack, the occupation regime not only violated (yet again) the fragile ceasefire, but also chose to target the British-based Al Khair charity, the very charity that I’ve been promoting at pre-Ramadan fundraisers in Scotland. Not content with killing the charity’s multimedia and aid team, rather than face the consequences of its actions, the IDF has now set about trying to frame its victims as “terrorists”. It even went to the extreme of using social media to circulate photographs of those it has killed, and linked them — without a single shred of evidence — to Palestinian resistance groups. In the haste to try to justify the occupation forces’ murderous attack, though, and cover-up the killing of innocent aid workers, the wrong photographs have been used in the IDF tweets.
Last night, as I walked into the Al Khair Foundation’s TV studio in London, there was a huge pall of sadness in the air. The charity has a really close-knit team and losing these eight aid and media workers was like suffering multiple deaths in the family.
The photographs of the martyrs bore no resemblance to the IDF’s “Hamas and Islamic jihad” “terrorist” tweet, but who would know the difference other than their family, friends and colleagues?
As Sir Winston Churchill once observed:
I now fear that the Zionists, unless they are held to account over the murders of aid workers, will continue targeting Al Khair charity which has raised tens of millions of pounds in donations for humanitarian aid since it was launched 20 years ago.
For me there is a feeling of déjà vu, because exactly the same sort of hate-filled campaign was directed over three decades towards the heroic British charity Interpal. Interpal faced a tsunami of lies and allegations almost from the day it was founded in 1994. No evidence was ever provided by the US which declared that it was a “specially-designated global terrorist organisation” in 2003, at Israel’s insistence. Compliant Zionist journalists and newspaper were part of the campaign. The UK’s charity regulator, though, found no evidence of illegal activity in its investigations. In the words of one senior Metropolitan Police officer, “The absence of any police involvement [in Interpal’s case] is hugely significant.”
Newspapers making and repeating “terrorist” allegations against Interpal were challenged, and all were settled without going to court. Most resulted in damages and costs being awarded to the charity, including from the Jewish Chronicle. The newspaper’s editor published an apology in August 2019 stating that they “accept that neither Interpal, nor its trustees, have ever been involved with or provided support for terrorist activity of any kind.” It also agreed to pay the charity’s legal costs. The JC is a major supporter of Israel.
Nevertheless, Zionists made it virtually impossible for the charity to operate in the public sector, putting pressure on banks to close its accounts. No bank account, no fundraising. Today Interpal acts largely as an advocate to encourage people to help the people of occupied Palestine. Again, though, no evidence of any wrongdoing or illegal activity has ever been produced by its accusers.
Now it seems that a similar campaign is being unleashed on Al Khair Foundation which, unlike Interpal, operates around the world in war zones and humanitarian disaster areas, not only Palestine.
Mohammed Abu Hasna, director of the Al-Khair Foundation’s international offices, told the Washington Post what happened in Gaza. He pointed out that humanitarian workers were opening camps for displaced Palestinians in the enclave when one of their vehicles was bombed. Two photographers who were documenting the work — important for fund-raising purposes as well as for due diligence, as evidence of where donors’ money has been spent — were killed.
The organisation sent another car to evacuate the survivors, said Abu Hasna. “But as soon as they got into the vehicle, they were targeted and all killed.” The dead included seven Foundation workers and someone from the camp, he explained.
On Saturday evening the head of Al Khair, Qasim Rashid Ahmad, the founder and chairman of the charity, told the BBC that his team was in the area to set up tents and document the work for the charity’s own promotional material. He said that the cameramen came back to the car and were hit, while its team members who rushed to the scene were then struck by an Israeli drone which had followed them when they went to the charity’s second car.
Such facts will certainly not get in the way of the story being manufactured by the Zionist army, which has a track record of churning out lies and misinformation.
Israel, already under investigation for war crimes in Palestine, is clearly rattled by the massive global media attention given to the Al Khair tragedy. Clearly, the last thing that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wants is to release another humiliating apology and climbdown after the WCK scandal. He is himself charged with war crimes at the International Criminal Court, of course, and he acknowledged that the Israeli military hit “innocent people”, describing the WCK attack as tragic and unintentional. “It happens in war, we check it to the end, we are in contact with the governments [of the victims], and we will do everything so that this thing does not happen again,” he said in a video message.
Well, it has happened again, Mr Netanyahu, another copycat killing, which leads us to only one conclusion: your rogue regime has criminalised charity work by targeting civilians working in the field, as you have done with those in the healthcare sector, journalism and teaching. Most moral army in the world? You and your soldiers don’t know what morals are.
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20250316-israel-not-only-weaponises-humanitarian-aid-but-also-criminalises-those-who-deliver-it/
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Direct Us-Hamas Talks Break Israel’s Gaza Narrative Monopoly
Daoud Kuttab
March 17, 2025
When I read about the recent direct talks between an official representative of the US and a high-level Hamas official, it jogged my memory back to the time of the First Intifada.
Back then, I was traveling in the Occupied Territories with a foreign journalist — I believe it was Dan Fisher of the Los Angeles Times — when members of the Israeli military stopped us. The first thing they did was separate us because they knew they could not harass me the way they would, with a foreigner — especially a journalist — watching.
Except for an attempt to bully me, and a slap to my face, I was able to return to my colleague with little harm. But the incident, repeated in different circumstances more than once, was an indication to me of how the occupier always wants to monopolize control. And to do that, it needs to remove anyone who can weaken an occupier-occupied relationship that is overwhelmingly weighted in favor of the former.
The importance of a third party — even a larger, biased one such as the US — is that its presence helps to partially adjust the asymmetry that exists in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
The attempt to monopolize the narrative can be best seen in the way Israel deals with the media. Palestinian journalists are not recognized as such unless they work for foreign media outlets. As far as I know, no Palestinian journalist working for a Palestinian media organization has ever been issued with a press card by the Israeli government’s press office. Lately, of course, even Al Jazeera, which was previously permitted to work as an international media outlet, has been prevented from doing so by an anti-press freedom law in Israel.
However, perhaps the best example of this vicious Israeli effort to control the narrative presented to the outside world can be seen in the ways in which its army and foreign policy have dealt with the war on Gaza. For more than 17 months, Israel has refused to allow a single foreign journalist into the territory. It has killed nearly 200 Palestinian journalists and destroyed buildings containing media offices in a clearly targeted effort at silencing Palestinians.
The Foreign Ministry has spent hundreds of millions of dollars bullying politicians and the foreign press to accept its narrative, which at times has included feeding fake stories to the White House about children being burned in ovens and mass rapes, without shame or apology for embarrassing their most powerful ally.
Israel feels no shame in regularly lying and distorting the facts on the ground, even when there is unmistakable visual proof to the contrary. By spinning the reality to justify its continued war crimes, Israeli authorities have attempted to ensure they can literally get away with murder.
In the case of the peace talks, Israel has used the same tactic to confuse and obfuscate negotiators in an attempt to make them believe whatever it wants them to believe about where Hamas stands on various issues. By flooding the airwaves with falsehoods, they have often succeeded in creating enough of a public opinion pause to get away with whatever they want.
The Israeli public, especially the families of the hostages, eventually realized what was happening and were able to debunk the continuous lies of their own government. But for the most part, Americans, including certain people in the White House who depend on only one particular TV station for news, have often been duped into believing that Hamas was always the obstacle.
But the moment that an authorized US representative this month met a senior Hamas leader without any Israeli officials around to try to alter the story, the American representative stated progress was being made. He also, accurately, stated that his job was to represent the interests of the US and he was not an agent of Israel — a clear jab at many of the current administration’s powerful Zionists.
It is not clear whether the US will continue its efforts to engage in direct negotiations. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, a strongly pro-Israel member of the US government, said the meeting was a one-off and will not be repeated.
That might be so, but the genie is now out of the bottle and the Americans realize, through firsthand experience, how much and for how long they have been duped by Israel. Nevertheless, the attempt to end a peace effort that appeared to be making progress is itself further proof of Israel’s desire to continue to monopolize the narrative, even in its dealings with its best ally, the US.
If talks for a permanent ceasefire and an end to the war on Gaza continue to stumble, I am not convinced that the White House will not attempt to send its envoy back to find out more directly from Hamas.
The Israeli power, both on the ground in the Occupied Territories and in the corridors of power in Washington, is not to be belittled. But still, the attempt to continuously monopolize the narrative cannot go on forever.
https://www.arabnews.com/node/2593830
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Why Egypt Refuses To Administer Gaza
Dr. Abdellatif El-Menawy
March 16, 2025
Egypt has firmly rejected the proposal made last month by Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid that suggested Egypt take over the administration of the Gaza Strip for up to 15 years in exchange for the cancellation of its external debt. The Egyptian response was clear and decisive, with the Foreign Ministry stating that such proposals are an “attempt to circumvent Egypt’s and the Arab world’s firm stance,” emphasizing the need for Israel to withdraw from occupied Palestinian territories and for an independent Palestinian state to be established.
This rejection is not just a passing political stance but a continuation of Egypt’s long-standing position on the Palestinian issue. Egypt has consistently opposed any proposals that reinforce the occupation or undermine the Palestinian cause. Previously, it also refused to participate in international forces within Gaza, further demonstrating its firm stance against assuming security or administrative responsibilities in the enclave.
The idea of Egypt managing Gaza is not new, as Egypt governed the territory between 1948 and 1967. Initially, Gaza was under the administration of the All-Palestine Government, which was supported by Cairo but lacked effective international recognition. As a result, Egypt later placed Gaza under direct military rule without formally annexing it.
During this period, Gaza faced severe economic and humanitarian challenges, worsened by the influx of more than 200,000 Palestinian refugees after the Nakba in 1948. Egypt never had a long-term political plan for governing Gaza; rather, it saw its administration as a temporary responsibility until a comprehensive solution to the Palestinian issue was found.
Egyptian rule in Gaza ended after the 1967 war, when Israel occupied the enclave along with the West Bank and Sinai. Since then, Egypt has not played a direct role in Gaza’s administration but has remained a key player in security matters and political mediation.
Egypt’s rejection of Lapid’s proposal is rooted in multiple concerns, with national security being the most critical. Cairo fears that assuming control of Gaza would create a significant security burden, particularly given the complex internal dynamics of the enclave and the presence of armed factions outside the control of the Palestinian Authority. If Egypt were to take administrative responsibility, it might find itself in direct confrontation with resistance groups, leading to unwanted conflicts that could destabilize Egypt’s internal security.
Additionally, Egypt is wary of Gaza becoming an unstable zone that extremist groups could exploit as a base for attacks on northern Sinai. To avoid such scenarios, Cairo is keen to prevent any situation that would entangle it in a complex security challenge on its eastern border.
Egypt also rejects any role that would make it act as a security enforcer for Israel. From Cairo’s perspective, Lapid’s proposal is an attempt to shift responsibility for Gaza onto Egypt, allowing Israel to evade its obligations. Instead of shouldering the costs of reconstruction after the devastation caused by Israeli military operations, Tel Aviv appears to be seeking to offload the burden onto Egypt.
This aligns with Egypt’s policy of refusing to serve as an instrument for implementing Israeli strategies that do not contribute to a comprehensive resolution of the Palestinian issue. Cairo understands that any direct involvement in Gaza’s administration could be perceived as serving Israeli interests at the expense of Palestinian rights.
Egypt is also deeply concerned that taking over Gaza’s administration could serve as the first step in a larger plan to permanently separate the enclave from the West Bank, effectively dismantling the Palestinian cause. If Gaza is removed from the broader Palestinian equation, it could pave the way for initiatives aimed at resettling Palestinians outside the West Bank — an idea that Egypt has consistently opposed.
There is also a strong fear that accepting control over Gaza could lead to a broader plan of relocating Palestinians from the enclave into the Sinai Peninsula. Egypt firmly rejects such a scenario, as it would not only undermine its national sovereignty but also pose a serious threat to its stability.
Another key factor in Egypt’s rejection of the proposal is the belief that its economic challenges do not justify compromising its national policies. Despite the economic incentives included in Lapid’s proposal, particularly the offer to cancel Egypt’s debts, Cairo has made it clear that it will not trade its strategic positions for financial relief. Egyptian officials have repeatedly emphasized that, despite the country’s economic difficulties, accepting such an offer could lead to political and security repercussions that far outweigh any temporary economic benefits.
Lapid’s proposal was not the first attempt to persuade Egypt to take on Gaza’s administration. In 2023, the US made a similar suggestion of Egypt temporarily overseeing Gaza’s security, but Cairo rejected that as well. Then-CIA Director William Burns discussed the idea with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, who firmly declined the proposal.
Moreover, Egypt has refused to participate in any international forces inside Gaza, believing that such involvement would make it a direct party to a prolonged conflict, leading to unpredictable consequences.
Egypt has not merely rejected the idea of governing Gaza but has also proposed alternative solutions that focus on Palestinian self-governance. One such solution is reinstating the PA’s control over Gaza as a step toward Palestinian unity and an end to internal divisions.
Additionally, Cairo has suggested forming a nonpartisan Palestinian government to oversee both the West Bank and Gaza — a proposal that Israel has opposed. Egypt has also offered to provide limited security and logistical support, such as border monitoring and training Palestinian security personnel, while firmly refusing any direct administrative role.
Egypt’s position on Gaza is clear and strategic: it refuses any direct administrative role within the enclave and opposes any plans that could undermine the Palestinian cause. This stance is evident in its repeated rejection of Israeli and American proposals, despite political pressure and economic incentives.
From Cairo’s perspective, the solution to Gaza’s crisis does not lie in Egyptian administration but in a comprehensive settlement that includes ending Israel’s occupation, restoring PA control over Gaza and ensuring the Palestinian people’s right to establish an independent state. Egypt remains committed to its role as a mediator, but it refuses to become a direct party to a crisis that it believes should not be its responsibility.
https://www.arabnews.com/node/2593820
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Egypt’s Gaza Strategy: Ceasefire Talks And A Bold Reconstruction Plan
By Neville Teller
March 17, 2025
Egypt is currently playing a crucial role in two of the most significant efforts related to the Gaza conflict.
As a mediator, along with the US and Qatar, of the arms-length discussions between Israel and Hamas, Egypt has hosted many rounds of ceasefire and prisoner exchange negotiations. Now, strengthened by its central role in the ceasefire talks, it has masterminded a detailed $53 billion reconstruction initiative for Gaza, which has received strong backing from Arab nations, Western governments, and the UN.
It has provided a credible alternative to President Donald Trump’s “Riviera of the Mediterranean” concept, which proposed the displacement of most of Gaza’s Palestinian population into neighboring Arab states.
In late 2023, Egypt did allow the immigration into Egypt, via the Rafah crossing, of a limited number of foreign nationals, dual citizens, and wounded Palestinians. Subsequently, however, it has strongly opposed extending this program, holding firmly to the belief that Gazan citizens should not be displaced from their homeland.
Early in February, Israel accused Egypt of expanding its military presence near the border, perhaps to guard against an influx of refugees from Gaza. Egypt said its soldiers were there to fight extremists, who are certainly active in the Sinai peninsula.
Total rejection of the idea of displacing large numbers of Gazan citizens lies at the heart of Egypt’s proposals for post-war Gaza. Egypt is shaping the region’s response to the crisis and positioning itself at the forefront of regional diplomacy, making it a central actor in shaping the future of Gaza and broader Middle East stability.
Egypt’s initiative would carry real conviction if it emanated from an economically flourishing nation-state, but Egypt is not flying high on the domestic front. It is one of the world’s most indebted emerging markets. It is a major burden to service its debts, especially to the International Monetary Fund and Gulf states arising from previous financial rescue packages.
As a condition of accepting these loans, Egypt’s president, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, was obliged to restrict public spending and impose heavier taxes. This resulted in soaring inflation and the persistent depreciation of Egypt’s currency. This, at least, Sisi has been attempting, with some success, to remedy.
Egypt's economy
Egypt’s annual inflation rate in 2020 was about 5.4%. By 2023, it had surged to some 34%, and in September 2024 it peaked at 38%, plunging large parts of the population into severe poverty. Since then, it has been brought under control, and is now declining.
A Reuters poll projects that the inflation rate in February will have fallen to 14.5% – much too high for comfort but on the correct trajectory.
As for the Egyptian pound, in 2022 its trading rate was about E£16 to the dollar. In 2023, it traded at around E£31. By the end of 2024, the Egyptian pound had devalued to E£50.64 per US dollar.
Sisi, however, is succeeding in reversing the downward economic spiral. As of March 2025, Egypt’s economic indicators show definite signs of improvement. Its GDP growth rate was recorded at 3.5% in the first quarter of the fiscal year 2024/2025, reflecting the positive impact of economic reform policies.
Looking ahead, the ratings organization Moody’s Analytics forecasts a 5% growth for Egypt’s economy by the fiscal year 2025/2026, with average inflation expected to fall to 16% in the next fiscal year, before further decreasing to 13% by 2026.
Sisi's political standing at home, at a particularly low ebb during the worst of the economic hardship, has not yet shown much sign of improvement. Egypt’s enhanced international standing, following acceptance by the Arab world and the UN of its plan for Gaza’s future, may start to turn the popularity ratings in Sisi’s favor.
Vision 2030
What could effect a sea change in both Sisi’s and Egypt’s standing would be if its economic development program, Egypt’s Vision 2030, achieves some of its goals in the next five years.
Saudi Vision 2030, the ambitious program to revolutionize Saudi Arabia economically and socially, led by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, has received a fair degree of publicity.
Egypt’s Vision 2030, about which much less has appeared in the media, is no pale copy. On the contrary, it was launched in February 2016, two months before bin Salman announced his plan for Saudi Arabia.
Egypt’s Vision 2030 is a long-term economic development program aimed at achieving sustainable growth and improving the country’s global competitiveness. It focuses on key areas such as economic diversification, infrastructure development, education, healthcare, and environmental sustainability.
The plan aligns with the UN Sustainable Development Goals and aims to position Egypt as a leading economy in the region by enhancing investment and digital transformation.
Despite Egypt’s economic difficulties in recent years, the program has achieved a degree of success. With a population of 115 million, Egypt has been capitalizing on its skilled workforce, prime location, and rich resources to strengthen its position as a key economic hub within Africa.
A key component of Vision 2030 is the Digital Egypt strategy, focusing on fostering artificial intelligence and digital innovation. In 2024, Egypt’s tech sector recorded a 16.8% year-on-year growth. Central to the program is Egypt’s construction sector, growing at an annual rate of 7.4%.
Vision 2030 has driven several ambitious projects, including New Alamein City, the high-speed rail and urban railway networks, critical seaport and road infrastructure, and the $45 billion New Administrative Capital.
This massive urban development project, intended to house some 6.5 million people eventually, is designed to ease congestion in Cairo and serve as the country’s new government and financial hub. Estimated to cost over $58 billion, it was started in 2015.
Government offices began to relocate there in 2024, while the designated business district, which contains Africa’s tallest skyscraper, the Iconic Tower, is growing rapidly. A new rail and monorail system connects it to Cairo, and an international airport is under construction.
Vision 2030 envisages 42% of Egypt’s energy coming from renewable sources by 2030. By prioritizing wind, solar, and green hydrogen production, the country is expanding its renewable capacity to 45,000 megawatts from projects already under construction.
In 2024, Egypt attracted 15.7 million tourists, breaking its record for the second consecutive year. Tourism and Antiquities Minister Sherif Fathy projects that Egypt is on track to reach 30 million tourists by 2030.
With its multi-million development program showing every sign of succeeding, Egypt is particularly well-placed to mastermind an international effort to reconstruct Gaza. Its plan has been widely endorsed. Will that be enough to see it launched?
https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-846247
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The Uk’s Inaction On Islamist Radicalism Is A Crisis For Israel And The West
By Catherine Perez-Shakdam
March 17, 2025
On March 12, 2025, the House of Lords hosted a significant event organized by Trends and the Forum for Foreign Relations, chaired by Lord Walney, in which the immediate threat of the Muslim Brotherhood to the Arab World and the West was meticulously examined. This was not a routine discussion but a thoughtful exploration of the United Kingdom’s troubling evolution into an incubator for radicalism.
Drawing on the insightful discourse that emerged, this analysis reveals a serious challenge: the UK’s universities and media, influenced by the Muslim Brotherhood’s ideology, Qatari funding, and a reluctance to enforce the law, face a critical moment. The risks are profound, and the UK’s hesitation to address this threat – often misconstrued as tolerance or “Islamophobia” – endangers not only its own stability but also Israel’s security and the West’s broader order.
The event, a collaboration between Trends and the Forum for Foreign Relations (FFR), brought together a distinguished group of experts, policymakers, and advocates under Lord Walney’s thoughtful leadership. Speakers, including yours truly, carefully dismantled the facade of moderation surrounding the Muslim Brotherhood, presenting it not as a benign socio-political movement but as a revolutionary force established in 1928 by Hassan al-Banna.
Its key thinker, Sayyid Qutb, developed a framework for jihadist extremism, challenging national sovereignty, secular governments, and the House of Saud’s custodianship of Mecca, which the Brotherhood seeks to overtake.
The Brotherhood’s role in inspiring groups like al-Qaeda, Hamas, and ISIS was clearly articulated, alongside its ambition to impose a totalitarian Islamic state. Most notably, the discussion highlighted its often-overlooked alliance with the Iranian regime, challenging the common assumption that Sunni and Shi’ite radicalism cannot overlap.
This partnership, where Iran supports Brotherhood proxies like Hamas and the Houthis, seeks to destabilize the Arab order – a reality too often ignored by experts adhering to outdated perspectives.
The UK has become an incubator for radicalism
A thought was made painfully clear by Aurele Tobelem, FFR’s new director of research, that the UK’s universities and media have been infiltrated, their sanctity compromised by Qatari wealth and a culture of capitulation.
Campuses like the London School of Economics (LSE) and King’s College London have become crucibles of hate, where student societies host Brotherhood-linked speakers, as chronicled in the 2018 Policy Exchange report, “Extremism on Campus.”
Jewish students endure a barrage of vitriol and violence, their voices drowned by radical mobs, yet universities tremble, fearing accusations of stifling free speech or, absurdly, “Islamophobia.”
The 2023 Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act, intended to safeguard debate, has been twisted to shield extremists, while the Community Security Trust (CST) reports a staggering 1,978 antisemitic incidents in the first half of 2024, including 17 on campuses.
Qatari funding, such as the £10 million poured into LSE in 2018, has corrupted academia, while Al Jazeera and other Qatari-backed outlets peddle Brotherhood narratives, as noted in the 2015 Guardian exposé, “UK accused of turning blind eye to Muslim Brotherhood.”
This financial stranglehold, coupled with the UK’s failure to proscribe the Brotherhood, despite its terrorist designation by the United Arab Emirates in 2014, has normalized radical thought, eroding our democratic fabric.
The UK's refusal to wield the law with resolve, its reluctance to proscribe the Brotherhood, and its grotesque conflation of criticism with Islamophobia constitute a moral and strategic abyss. As the 2012 Henry Jackson Society report, “The Muslim Brotherhood in the UK: A Threat to National Security?” warns, this narrative silences scrutiny, enabling the Brotherhood’s multi-pronged assault of infiltration, radicalization, and violence.
Universities, paralyzed by fear of legal reprisal or public outrage, neglect anti-radicalization policies like Prevent, while media outlets, swayed by Qatari influence, amplify extremist propaganda, undermining public trust and national security.
This complacency imperils not only Britain but Israel and the West. The Brotherhood’s alliance with Iran, overlooked by too many due to archaic assumptions about sectarian divides, fuels a shared crusade to destabilize Saudi Arabia and expand Islamist dominion, threatening Jewish communities and democratic values.
Historical cases, like Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab’s radicalization at University College London, underscore how campuses breed terror. The UK’s failure to emulate the UAE’s iron resolve risks transforming our streets and lecture halls into launchpads for jihadist fury.
This moment demands a fierce reckoning. The UK must ban the Brotherhood and its affiliates, uproot its networks in academia and media, and enforce unyielding policies to prosecute incitement and combat radicalization. Universities must forge strict codes of conduct, train staff and students with tools like Educate Against Hate, and partner with law enforcement.
The UK must also abandon its perilous delusion that equates criticism of radical Islamist ideology with Islamophobia, adopting instead the UAE’s resolute clarity to protect our society from this existential peril. This mischaracterization, rooted in a misguided fear of offending, has paralyzed action against the Muslim Brotherhood, allowing its insidious influence to fester within our institutions.
For Israel, this is no distant specter but a frontline siege. The Muslim Brotherhood’s influence, amplified by Qatari funding and its covert collusion with the Iranian regime, directly endangers Jewish students on UK campuses, the Zionist project, and the fragile stability of the Middle East.
Readers must heed this warning with urgency, pressing their governments – both in Israel and the West – to act decisively. Failure to do so risks allowing the UK’s complacency to ignite a conflagration of jihadist terror that could engulf us all, leaving Israel isolated and the West vulnerable.
Yet, there is hope in unity. The Abraham Accords, forged in 2020 to normalize relations between Israel, the UAE, Bahrain, and later Morocco, must now evolve into a robust framework for a global collaboration against the evil of our time: jihadism. Named to evoke the shared heritage of Judaism, Islam, and Christianity through Abraham, these accords offer a model of cooperation that transcends historical animosities.
By expanding this alliance to include Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and other nations wary of the Brotherhood and Iran, we can forge a coalition to counter radicalism’s spread. The UAE’s resolute stance against the Brotherhood, combined with Israel’s strategic insight and the West’s resources, could create a formidable bulwark against jihadist ideology.
This partnership would prioritize intelligence sharing, joint anti-terrorism operations, and public campaigns to expose the Brotherhood’s true nature, as well as Qatari funding’s role in sustaining it.
Such a framework, rooted in the Abraham Accords’ spirit of mutual respect and security, would not only protect Israel and its Diaspora but also safeguard the Arab world and the West from the Brotherhood’s totalitarian ambitions, ensuring a future where jihadism’s shadow no longer looms large over our shared humanity.
https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-846245
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The Hypocrisy Of The Human Rights Industrial Complex
By Dan Diker
March 17, 2025
On March 8, United States federal immigration agents arrested Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian activist at Columbia University, for potential deportation. The arrest came as part of President Donald Trump’s new policy of revoking the visas or green cards of Hamas supporters to crack down on antisemitic and terrorism-supporting campus demonstrations.
Since Hamas’s October 7, 2023, massacre, campus protesters have harassed Jewish students, vandalized college property, and burned American flags.
Khalil distributed Hamas-supporting flyers and printed materials, organized break-ins of campus buildings and classrooms, posted anti-American sentiments online, and called for “armed struggle” in his activism for the Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD) student organization. These potentially constitute violations of federal laws against material support for terror, conspiring to promote disorderly conduct, and sedition – all exceptions to protected speech.
Yet Khalil’s arrest has met with staunch opposition, expressed in a letter signed by Democrats in Congress, and thousands of social media posts that support him. A federal judge has blocked Khalil’s deportation pending full legal proceedings.
Khalil’s case raises questions as to why Americans are defending terrorism-supporting protests on campus, while ignoring the plight of the currently targeted Alawites and Christians facing violence and ethnic cleansing in Syria by Islamists with an ideology identical to that of Hamas.
Gaza has been the hyper-focus of the global “human rights” agenda since the October 7, 2023 Hamas terrorist attack on Israel. Though Israel’s difficult and asymmetrical war on Hamas only began after the organization’s murder of more than 1,200 innocent people and the kidnapping of 251 people, a “human rights” agenda has been weaponized against Israel by NGOs and the international community: the United Nations, its International Court of Justice, the International Criminal Court, and at times the European Union.
The United Nations, for example, inexplicably accepted as fact death statistics provided by the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry and quoted them as fact. The “ministry,” though, has provided unsubstantiated numbers that were proven to be fabricated.
For instance, the numbers of civilians purportedly killed were intermingled with those of militants. Some numbers were statistically impossible as reported over time; rosters of the deceased contained discrepancies and false names, and included natural deaths.
Still, NGOs, the UN, the ICJ, and ICC, in their cases against Israel and its representatives, depicted Israel’s urban warfare against Hamas, a designated terrorist organization, as “genocide” and “ethnic cleansing.” The ICC issued arrest warrants for “war crimes” against Israel’s prime minister and minister of defense based on Hamas’s information, and the UN called for a ceasefire without demanding that Hamas release hostages, some of them children and the elderly.
Double standardness and willful blindness
Compare this international reaction to that of the aftermath of the December 2024 Islamist overthrow of the Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria by Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), in which at least 1,000 Alawites and Christians were murdered. Despite his al-Qaeda and ISIS background, and the sectarian killings, the new leader of Syria, Ahmed al-Sharaa, has been mainstreamed and internationally legitimized.
He met with UN Secretary-General António Guterres on March 4, on the sidelines of the Arab League Summit in Cairo. In December 2024, he met with American diplomats, and in January he met with French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot and German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock in Damascus, while also meeting with Arab leaders.
In addition, Reuters reported that Syria’s Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shibani is set to attend an EU-hosted donor summit in Brussels on March 17 – the first time Syria’s new government will be formally represented at this yearly conference.
The West's willful blindness to HTS has been stunning. At most, Michael Ohnmacht, the European Union’s chargé d’affaires to Syria, made a March 9 statement urging all parties to “exercise restraint” and respect Syrian diversity, without directly blaming al-Sharaa or HTS.
Germany and France condemned the atrocities on March 8 and 9, with Germany calling reports “shocking,” but neither explicitly criticized al-Sharaa, focusing instead on “accountability.”
The “human rights industrial complex’s” double standard – a scathing critique of Israel, which has, in complete comportment with international law, fought Hamas Islamist militants who massacred Israeli civilians – while treating al-Sharaa and HTS with kid gloves for doing the same to Alawites and Christians in Syria – is the height of hypocrisy.
It closely parallels the irony of progressive college students protesting in support of murderous terrorists Hamas, while no campus protests were held for murdered Alawites or Christians.
The selective outrage at the democratic Jewish state of Israel, while turning a blind eye or downplaying the sectarian violence and genocidal tribal murder perpetrated by HTS supporters in Syria, is a matter of political convenience.
Israel has been a target for “human rights” political warfare because it is convenient to corner Jews and the Jewish state, while it is politically inconvenient – and politically incorrect – to criticize Sunni-Shi’ite tribal clan warfare in Syria or anywhere else.
This is why the international community and the Western Left have failed to uphold, and instead uproot, human rights. They understand that the real violators pose the real threat to Western civilization, as proclaimed in an Instagram post by Khalil’s organization.
The West’s mission is clear. The UN and its associated bodies must overcome and confront their fear of the extremist al-Qaeda-Hamas-ISIS-Iran-proxy matrix if they wish to salvage what is left of human rights.
Failure to do so will cause the system to self-destruct, putting the last nail in the coffin of the human rights discourse, as its weak condemnation of clan and sectarian genocide in Syria has so graphically illustrated.
https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-846239
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URL: https://www.newageislam.com/middle-east-press/hostage-hamas-weaponise-ceasefire-hypocrisy/d/134889
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