Will Israel’s invasion of Rafah trigger a regional war including Egypt?

Retired Israeli general Yitzhak Brik [1] told the Maariv newspaper that a conflict between Egypt and Israel, due to the siege of Rafah by the Israeli army – in the south of the Gaza Strip, on the border with Egypt – would turn into a tragedy for Prime Minister Netanyahu’s troubled government, because Israel has no way of dealing with Egypt.

According to Brik, the Egyptian army is one of the most powerful in the Middle East boasting around 4,000 tanks, including 2,000 modern ones, as well as powerful ships and fighter planes: breaking the peace with the Egyptians would be a catastrophe for the security of Israel in all respects and, in the event of a conflict, Israel would have no other recourse than to pray to God.

The conflict could be triggered by the military stranglehold of the Palestinian city of Rafah, where we know that nearly a million civilians were forced to flee [2]. At the same time, Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Choukri announced that his country would join South Africa’s case against Israel before the International Court of Justice (ICJ), as reported by the Voltaire Network in its latest International Newsletter [3]. To boot, Egypt called on the UN Security Council to oppose Israel’s military invasion of Rafah.

However, “Israel violated the Camp David agreements [4] by penetrating with its tanks into the demilitarized zone known as the Philadelphia Corridor: a strip of land 14 km long by 100 meters wide, which has been administered since 2005 by Egypt and the Palestinian Authority, currently chaired by Mahmoud Abbas". The Voltaire Network recalls that, for nine years, Egypt alone has controlled the Rafah crossing point, while the Israeli army occupies the Palestinian side of the border post, blocking the entry of humanitarian aid.

Brik predicts that the worst possible war for Israel is approaching: the Egyptians will bury Israel, it is a red flag and an emergency alarm for all Israeli citizens. The retired general warns that the military invasion of Rafah will be the final nail in the coffin of Israel’s ability to defeat Hamas and he worries, despite his professional war experience, that a regional war, more dangerous and more horrific than the current conflict in the Gaza Strip, is looming on the horizon. He lambasted the five Israeli leaders – referring to the war cabinet comprising Prime Minister Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, Chief of Staff Hertzi Halevi and the two generals Benny Gantz and Gadi Eisenkot – for having drawn Israel into a “regional war (sic)”.

Brik attacks the five members of the war cabinet who, after seizing 80% of the Gaza Strip, excluding Rafah, pulled back the Israeli troops, thus allowing Hamas to regain control of the entire area: “Losing against Hamas and losing against Egypt, the war chiefs are leading Israel towards disaster" [5].

He claims that the current reality of the Israeli army is that it does not have the power to crush Hamas, even if the war drags on. Furthermore, it cannot push Hezbollah back across the Litani River - the very opposite of what Israel’s toxic war propaganda claims! Brik exposes “the erosion (re-sic) to which the Israeli army is prey, and which is likely to spread if it continues a war which has already lost its reason for being and has not achieved its objectives ".

Nine days after Brik’s foreboding of imminent insubordination, a hooded Israeli soldier in Gaza threatened a "military coup (sic sic sic)" in a video addressed to Prime Minister Netanyahu - all in the style of the Jalisco Cartel “Nueva generación” – with 100,000 reservists (mega-sic) to prevent the handover of the Gaza government to either Palestinian group [6]. The video was put out by Yair, the controversial 32-year-old son of Prime Minister Netanyahu, who now lives comfortably in Miami [7].