The Israeli assault on the Gaza Strip has been ongoing for four days leaving scores dead and hundreds injured. As the death toll rises Egypt’s President Abdel Fatah Al-Sisi seems incapable of taking a strong stand as his predecessor, who he ousted in a military coup in July 2013.
In 2012, Mohamed Morsi, Egypt’s first freely elected president was able to broker a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel to end the latter’s onslaught on Gaza.
During his short rule, Morsi quickly eased travel restrictions on the enclave and opened the Rafah border crossing. However, once he was ousted, Al-Sisi quickly tightened control on the crossing and closed it.
In addition to this, under Al-Sisi’s auspices, the Egyptian Army has bombed and attacked Sinai, destroying a large number of tunnels used by Palestinians to get their daily needs, including food and petrol, intensifying the suffering of the people of Gaza.
In 2012, Morsi gave a speech committing his country to the Palestinian cause and its people, and warning Israel against further aggression.
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We see what is happening in Gaza of aggression and killing of men, of women and of children. Blood is being spilled. This is a serious matter. This is a blatant aggression against humanity, against men and against women. This is a matter that I once again warn against. Once more I would like to say to those who are committing the aggression that they will never ever, they will never ever, they will never ever, have authority over the people of Gaza. We shall not leave Gaza alone. We shall not leave Gaza alone. I say to those, I say to those in the name of the entire people of Egypt, I say to them that Egypt today, that Egypt today, that Egypt today, is completely different from yesterday’s Egypt. The Arabs today are completely different from yesterday’s Arabs. The Muslims today are completely different from yesterday’s Muslims.
Crowds chant repeatedly: With blood and soul we redeem Palestine.
Dr Morsi: The Muslims today, the Muslims today, are not like they used to be years ago. We all, with Egypt and its great people and its enormous resources and its proud men and its women who are capable of giving; Egypt, the Arabs and the Muslims, I say, while having full confidence in all of these, that they will not leave Gaza alone. We are today in front of this aggression, we say to the aggressor you will not accomplish peace through aggression nor will you have stability through aggression and you will earn no good on this land through aggression. War does not create stability ever nor does it ever make peace. This blood will turn into a curse against you and will mobilise all the people of the region against you. I say, as a government, I say, as a leadership, a government a people, a homeland and an Ummah, I say to you, warning you, reasserting the conscious words with capable will and resources that are by the grace of Allah enormous and an uninterrupted act of giving, I say to you Gaza is not alone. And I say to you that the world does not ever endorse aggression. The entire world is saying no to the aggressor. You will not be able to defeat a people and you will be able to kill an Ummah. You do not have the ability, and you never had the ability, to establish peace or stability for yourselves by means of your aggression. Go and read the lessons of history and learn from the present and from the past and learn from these lessons that you have never succeeded and that you will never ever succeed. You will never ever have control over us or over the people of Gaza. We assure you and we assure everyone that Egypt, with its people and with its leadership, does not want to go to war with anyone. We are not warmongers; we preach peace, but real peace. We call for real peace and not a peace that is only for one individual or one party, such peace would be a time waster. It would be a meaningless peace and would therefore be unacceptable peace in concept and in practice. Reality tells us all that what is happening is rejected. We are against this and against those who try to falsify reality or resort to feeble pretexts or want days to pass by while they gain land or gain time. We realise this, we are aware and know what is happening. Time will never, ever be wasted nor will opportunities, God willing, be lost. Let everyone know that Egypt’s size and Egypt’s resources and the will of the Egyptians and the revolution of the Egyptians as they uprooted injustice can uproot aggression.
Egypt today, and I am in communication with all the leaders, the presidents and the kings, and I sense and know the people, presidents and kings of the Arab and Islamic states and the world, that we are still talking about preventing aggression and the necessity of stopping the offensive and that shedding of blood should immediately be stopped. Everyone realises that the peoples are angry and that the leadership of Egypt is angry because of what is happening to Gaza. Egypt’s leadership is angry and is making a move to prevent aggression against Gaza and against the people of Palestine whether in Gaza or out of Gaza. This is a people who should be able to live in peace on their land. Our souls, all of us, yearn for Jerusalem. All of our souls yearn for Jerusalem. And I say to the aggressor learn from history, take lessons from history, stop this farce, stop the bloodshed, or else you will never be able to withstand our anger. It is the anger of a people and a leadership. Egyptians have always loved peace and never ever left their land at any moment in history to attack others. They never colonised anyone. They never oppressed anyone. The entire history of Egypt is like this. But they were always capable of deterring aggression and defeating the aggressor. They were capable of protecting the land, the honour, the homeland and the entire Ummah; Arabs and Muslims. By the Grace of Allah we are still as we have always been, and we are today keener and more determined to be a permanent protective shield for our Ummah, both Arab and Islamic.
We, in Egypt, stand with the people of Gaza. Today, the prime minister of Egypt and the assistants and advisors of the president of the Republic together with the ministers went [to Gaza] so as to declare our unequivocal solidarity with the people of Gaza and to say that we stand with them in the same ditch, that what befalls them befalls us and that the blood that flows out of the bodies of their children, as they flow out of them they cause us pain as if they were flowing out of the bodies of our own children. We shall not accept this ever. Thus, we say to the entire world, and we know that there are many fair people in it, we say in the name of the people, and I say as a president of Egypt, stop this terrible action, stop this blatant aggression, stop the bloodshed. This is a serious call. It is not simply a reverberation of something some people may not care to listen to. It is in all seriousness that I say to those who commit the aggression that the cost will be very high for this aggression. Should the aggressors continue in their aggression they should then be prepared to bear the consequences to them and to those who think this aggression will maintain peace or stability for them.
The prime minister of Egypt today visited Gaza and we are continuing all serious efforts to stop the aggression. We shall continue to support Gaza and the people of Gaza and we stand by Palestine and the people of Palestine and the Palestinian issue and the Palestinian decision. What the Palestinians decide, we shall support their decision. So, if they decide to go the United Nations we shall support their decision. We shall not decide on their behalf nor shall we intervene in their affairs. But we stand with them, we care for them, we defend them and we consider them part of us and we are part of them.
I hope, I hope, that Allah will protect this world from evil, from hatred, from sedition and from guile. Guile and deceit that only incurs doom on those that make it or design it.
This is history. As for our reality, we are good, praise be to Allah. We are harmed by what happens to Gaza and we move to prevent it.
Almighty Allah supports those that support His cause. So, support His cause by attending to yourselves and attending to your homeland Egypt. Support His cause by supporting your Ummah, both Arabs and Muslims. Then, and through unity, through determination and action, while maintaining good trust in Allah and through production, expect that which is good. This is not difficult in the eyes of God, and tomorrow is nearby for those that await it. Happy New Year and peace by upon you.
