Hatred of Hamas leaves Egyptians unsympathetic
Many Egyptians, upset with Hamas for its alleged support of terrorism against their country, are not expressing much sympathy for the Gaza Strip in its conflict with Israel.
CAIRO — In November 2012, when Israel assassinated the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades' top commander, Ahmed al-Jabari, and unleashed its Operation Pillar of Defense, then-Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi was the first to interfere. He recalled Egypt's ambassador to Tel Aviv, ordered a full opening of the Rafah Terminal to any and all Palestinians, and sent Prime Minister Hisham Kandil to the Gaza Strip on an unprecedented official visit. In a few days, a cease-fire was brokered by Cairo.
Back then, I harshly criticized Morsi, not for his interaction with the war in neighboring Gaza, but rather for the amount of effort exerted there while his cabinet did almost nothing for the families of 53 children killed in a train crash in Upper Egypt while Israel pounded the Gaza Strip. It was clear at the time, when the Muslim Brotherhood's cabinet blamed the train crash on Hosni Mubarak's three-decade, corrupt rule, that Gaza meant more to Morsi and his ruling outfit.
But the reaction of Egypt's current regime led by former defense minister and now-President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to the ongoing war in Gaza — with the Egyptian news media and even a great portion of the Egyptian populace trailing along — has shown a new policy that is at the least apathetic and is at many times supporting Israel's military action, despite its continuing to take innocent Palestinian lives with impunity.
A semi-official reaction initially came from the Ministry of Interior's official Facebook page, which published photos of 16 flag-wrapped caskets of soldiers killed in the border town of Rafah in August 2012. The photos were captioned: "Sorry, Gaza, We Won't Forget."
