Dr. Hossam Badrawi Official Website
An existential battle
Written by
Hossam Badrawi
There is a lump in the throat and pain in the soul from the injustice inflicted on the Palestinian people throughout modern history and the loss of their rights, which has continually created the impression among generations in the East and West that Israel’s occupation of their lands and the humiliation of dealing with them is a reality that turns into a right that contradicts reality to the point that their intifada is considered Against the occupier, according to the West, is a terrorist act.
This battle surprised me in that it may be the first of this magnitude whose burdens are ostensibly borne by its owners. The truth is that those who ignited the war are Hamas, but all the residents of Gaza are the ones who bear the consequences.
I have doubts about the objectives of the massive Hamas attack and the number of dead Israelis, and even the families of them, because I do not trust the leadership of Hamas, their intentions, or the possibilities of their not-so-innocent basic agreements with Egypt.
It was certain that there would be a severe and violent military response from the heavily armed Israeli military machine, and it was, after creating a media justification in front of the biased Western world for that.
Where will that response be directed, in the mind, to Gaza and its residents, which may create pressure to flee outside the borders, to Egypt? And we face a terrifying situation with a million or more Palestinians on our borders. We cannot afford not to receive them, and we do not have a way to prevent them, and Palestinian and Arab demonstrations begin against Egypt, which does not It accepts containing the crisis, which will put Egypt in a very critical and difficult position.
Filling the Sinai with a million or more people fleeing from Israel’s bombing of Gaza may be one of the main goals of this sudden war, to put Egypt in this position…but at the same time, the Palestinian issue changed its condition after October 7, and its origins and the racism that ramified returned to the minds of humanity. In the minds of the governments of the United States and Europe and their cover behind human rights calls, which they manipulate with despicable double standards.
I believe that it has been one of the goals of Israel and the West for some time, for North Sinai to become an alternative home for the Palestinians. Attempts have continued, and this time they may be imposed by combat circumstances that give Israel an artificial right to strike Gaza and displace its residents to another place, and Egypt may bear responsibility.
The crisis also made clear that there is duality and even multiplicity in the view of the Jews themselves towards the alleged homeland, and that the Israeli extreme right aims to completely eliminate the Palestinian people.
Indeed, the crisis has made clear the near impossibility of the two-state solution that many are calling for. The settlements in the West Bank now contain 800,000 fanatical Israelis, and an Israeli government will not dare, under any agreement, to remove them. There is an almost impossibility to integrate the Palestinians with the Jews into one state within the framework of a terrible racist law similar to the situation. In South Africa, it was even more violent than before the situation turned.
I do not rule out that offers of financial support from the international community will come in to absorb the displaced people expelled in Sinai, creating a new situation that may be difficult to get rid of.
My concern has its reasons. The lesson of the Egyptian victory war in October was not only military, but also negotiating and diplomatic, after creating a new situation by crossing our forces and penetrating Bar Lev.
Wars create a situation after which negotiations begin after shaking the balance of power, and I do not see that in light of the American military machine’s insistence on evacuating Gaza (at least its north).
The other issue is moral. How do we defend the right without descending to the level of the occupier’s baseness? How do we win over the world that, with Israel’s intelligence and the accumulated stupidity of our management of the issue, has become sympathetic to the usurper and condemns the oppressed? How do we defend Egypt, the division of Sinai, and the chaos that a new reality may create without… This threat is a reason and justification for not moving forward with modernizing Egypt
Let us remember that an internally strong Egypt is the one that can stand up to the civilizational challenge and support the truth, and we have no choice but to fight the biggest and greatest battle with ourselves before the enemies.
We must not forget that there is a hidden and apparent conflict over the leadership of the region between Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Iran, and Turkey
Therefore, we must not allow the pursuit of Egypt’s human development to stop, nor be drawn into battles that others create for us. We stand in favor of the truth, but that does not distract us or distract us from the fact that we have an existential battle ahead of us, which is developing the capabilities, minds, and souls of more than one hundred million Egyptians.
Let us criticize Hamas, but do not hate the Palestinians or deny their rights.
Hamas is not Palestine, but it is a snapshot in the life of a people who fell under massive oppression and a nation whose land was stolen with unprecedented violence and racial discrimination never witnessed in history.
We are for the truth and for humanity, and we must not descend into racism like Israel.
I am concerned that we are peoples who do not differentiate between their governments and the homeland, and we merge this into that and there becomes confusion…Hamas is a government, elected once, and Palestine is a permanent homeland.
The government is a political administration for a short period of the nation’s life, and no government lasts forever. While the homeland is history and geography, the soil that contained the remains of the ancestors, and the trees that drank their sweat, it is thought, culture, customs and traditions. That is why every person has the right to hate the government, but he does not have the right to hate the country.
Hamas is not Palestine. Not everyone who disagrees with Hamas is an enemy of Palestine, and not everyone who doubts the intentions of Hassan Nasrallah is a friend of Zionism… Governments once again come and go, but the people and the homeland remain.
The West has lifted the veil of life and shown latent racism rooted in their consciences, and an ugly duplicity of human rights, but this should not give our Arab governments the right to violate the rights of their citizens under the pretext of the West’s double standards.
Let me explain the dilemma any regime finds itself in when it confuses itself with the nation. De Gaulle, the great leader of France, said to his people, “I am France, and France is me,” and they overthrew him in a referendum that he put to the people to authorize him in some matters. He was the spiritual and actual father of the liberation of his country, and when he did not obtain the percentage he requested, he stepped down from power until he died. This did not affect the people’s respect for him and the naming of airports, metro stations and squares after him.
Written by
Hossam Badrawi
There is a lump in the throat and pain in the soul from the injustice inflicted on the Palestinian people throughout modern history and the loss of their rights, which has continually created the impression among generations in the East and West that Israel’s occupation of their lands and the humiliation of dealing with them is a reality that turns into a right that contradicts reality to the point that their intifada is considered Against the occupier, according to the West, is a terrorist act.
This battle surprised me in that it may be the first of this magnitude whose burdens are ostensibly borne by its owners. The truth is that those who ignited the war are Hamas, but all the residents of Gaza are the ones who bear the consequences.
I have doubts about the objectives of the massive Hamas attack and the number of dead Israelis, and even the families of them, because I do not trust the leadership of Hamas, their intentions, or the possibilities of their not-so-innocent basic agreements with Egypt.
It was certain that there would be a severe and violent military response from the heavily armed Israeli military machine, and it was, after creating a media justification in front of the biased Western world for that.
Where will that response be directed, in the mind, to Gaza and its residents, which may create pressure to flee outside the borders, to Egypt? And we face a terrifying situation with a million or more Palestinians on our borders. We cannot afford not to receive them, and we do not have a way to prevent them, and Palestinian and Arab demonstrations begin against Egypt, which does not It accepts containing the crisis, which will put Egypt in a very critical and difficult position.
Filling the Sinai with a million or more people fleeing from Israel’s bombing of Gaza may be one of the main goals of this sudden war, to put Egypt in this position…but at the same time, the Palestinian issue changed its condition after October 7, and its origins and the racism that ramified returned to the minds of humanity. In the minds of the governments of the United States and Europe and their cover behind human rights calls, which they manipulate with despicable double standards.
I believe that it has been one of the goals of Israel and the West for some time, for North Sinai to become an alternative home for the Palestinians. Attempts have continued, and this time they may be imposed by combat circumstances that give Israel an artificial right to strike Gaza and displace its residents to another place, and Egypt may bear responsibility.
The crisis also made clear that there is duality and even multiplicity in the view of the Jews themselves towards the alleged homeland, and that the Israeli extreme right aims to completely eliminate the Palestinian people.
Indeed, the crisis has made clear the near impossibility of the two-state solution that many are calling for. The settlements in the West Bank now contain 800,000 fanatical Israelis, and an Israeli government will not dare, under any agreement, to remove them. There is an almost impossibility to integrate the Palestinians with the Jews into one state within the framework of a terrible racist law similar to the situation. In South Africa, it was even more violent than before the situation turned.
I do not rule out that offers of financial support from the international community will come in to absorb the displaced people expelled in Sinai, creating a new situation that may be difficult to get rid of.
My concern has its reasons. The lesson of the Egyptian victory war in October was not only military, but also negotiating and diplomatic, after creating a new situation by crossing our forces and penetrating Bar Lev.
Wars create a situation after which negotiations begin after shaking the balance of power, and I do not see that in light of the American military machine’s insistence on evacuating Gaza (at least its north).
The other issue is moral. How do we defend the right without descending to the level of the occupier’s baseness? How do we win over the world that, with Israel’s intelligence and the accumulated stupidity of our management of the issue, has become sympathetic to the usurper and condemns the oppressed? How do we defend Egypt, the division of Sinai, and the chaos that a new reality may create without… This threat is a reason and justification for not moving forward with modernizing Egypt
Let us remember that an internally strong Egypt is the one that can stand up to the civilizational challenge and support the truth, and we have no choice but to fight the biggest and greatest battle with ourselves before the enemies.
We must not forget that there is a hidden and apparent conflict over the leadership of the region between Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Iran, and Turkey
Therefore, we must not allow the pursuit of Egypt’s human development to stop, nor be drawn into battles that others create for us. We stand in favor of the truth, but that does not distract us or distract us from the fact that we have an existential battle ahead of us, which is developing the capabilities, minds, and souls of more than one hundred million Egyptians.
Let us criticize Hamas, but do not hate the Palestinians or deny their rights.
Hamas is not Palestine, but it is a snapshot in the life of a people who fell under massive oppression and a nation whose land was stolen with unprecedented violence and racial discrimination never witnessed in history.
We are for the truth and for humanity, and we must not descend into racism like Israel.
I am concerned that we are peoples who do not differentiate between their governments and the homeland, and we merge this into that and there becomes confusion…Hamas is a government, elected once, and Palestine is a permanent homeland.
The government is a political administration for a short period of the nation’s life, and no government lasts forever. While the homeland is history and geography, the soil that contained the remains of the ancestors, and the trees that drank their sweat, it is thought, culture, customs and traditions. That is why every person has the right to hate the government, but he does not have the right to hate the country.
Hamas is not Palestine. Not everyone who disagrees with Hamas is an enemy of Palestine, and not everyone who doubts the intentions of Hassan Nasrallah is a friend of Zionism… Governments once again come and go, but the people and the homeland remain.
The West has lifted the veil of life and shown latent racism rooted in their consciences, and an ugly duplicity of human rights, but this should not give our Arab governments the right to violate the rights of their citizens under the pretext of the West’s double standards.
Let me explain the dilemma any regime finds itself in when it confuses itself with the nation. De Gaulle, the great leader of France, said to his people, “I am France, and France is me,” and they overthrew him in a referendum that he put to the people to authorize him in some matters. He was the spiritual and actual father of the liberation of his country, and when he did not obtain the percentage he requested, he stepped down from power until he died. This did not affect the people’s respect for him and the naming of airports, metro stations and squares after him.
The ruling class and the media in Third World countries want to confuse criticism of governments’ failure in some of the basics of governance, stemming from their country’s constitutions, with the homeland. Mentioning any negativity of the ruling system becomes an attack on the nation, mentioning any failure in managing resources becomes an attack on the country, mentioning the transfer of power becomes an attack on the leaders, and matters become mixed and the ruler becomes the nation and the desire to rotate power is a desire to bring down the nation.
The positive, respectable citizen who sees positives and praises them, and sees negatives that he wants to overcome, has no place. Either you are with the ruler or against the country.
The media, which considers criticism of the ruler or the government to be criticism of the nation, contributes to establishing this concept, deepens it, and increases the real gap between the ruler, no matter how good his intentions, and the ruled. This is the norm of life and the product of political experiences.
The people who confuse the government with the nation, and the government that confuses itself with the nation, are the product of years of marginalization of society and absolute power. Hamas, as a government without a transfer of power, does not differ from monarchies in which the most worthy do not rule, but rather through heirs, nor from republics that use democratic means to reach the seat of power and do not leave it after that except through revolutions, assassinations, chaos, or death.
But Egypt is different from the rest of the Third World countries, as it is stronger, more lasting, and greater than a negative snapshot of its present, and we must not allow it to distort its past, and it is not right for us or for us to allow it to shape its future.
We support our leadership in its position in defending the homeland and Sinai. We support our government in not sliding into wars for which we are not prepared, the fires of which were lit by those who will not bear responsibility for them, and without consulting us, but that does not prevent us from holding our government accountable for its mistakes if they occur, nor for the misalignment of its priorities. Nor will I be responsible for the way it spends and manages its resources if that happens.
The current position unites our feelings with Palestine, and our desire, support and support for our leadership in its international position, but it does not negate or remove our dissatisfaction with our economic development position.
This political position should not be used to pass over mistakes. Just as the people should not confuse the government with the nation, any ruling authority should not mix and merge itself with the nation. We are all fleeting, and the nation will remain.
The positive, respectable citizen who sees positives and praises them, and sees negatives that he wants to overcome, has no place. Either you are with the ruler or against the country.
The media, which considers criticism of the ruler or the government to be criticism of the nation, contributes to establishing this concept, deepens it, and increases the real gap between the ruler, no matter how good his intentions, and the ruled. This is the norm of life and the product of political experiences.
The people who confuse the government with the nation, and the government that confuses itself with the nation, are the product of years of marginalization of society and absolute power. Hamas, as a government without a transfer of power, does not differ from monarchies in which the most worthy do not rule, but rather through heirs, nor from republics that use democratic means to reach the seat of power and do not leave it after that except through revolutions, assassinations, chaos, or death.
But Egypt is different from the rest of the Third World countries, as it is stronger, more lasting, and greater than a negative snapshot of its present, and we must not allow it to distort its past, and it is not right for us or for us to allow it to shape its future.
We support our leadership in its position in defending the homeland and Sinai. We support our government in not sliding into wars for which we are not prepared, the fires of which were lit by those who will not bear responsibility for them, and without consulting us, but that does not prevent us from holding our government accountable for its mistakes if they occur, nor for the misalignment of its priorities. Nor will I be responsible for the way it spends and manages its resources if that happens.
The current position unites our feelings with Palestine, and our desire, support and support for our leadership in its international position, but it does not negate or remove our dissatisfaction with our economic development position.
This political position should not be used to pass over mistakes. Just as the people should not confuse the government with the nation, any ruling authority should not mix and merge itself with the nation. We are all fleeting, and the nation will remain.
