File Photo: The Rafah border crossing in Egypt. AFP
In a lengthy interview to Fox News on Friday, Witkoff not only failed to utter a word of sympathy over the death of over 600 Palestinians since Tuesday, including nearly 200 children and 100 women, in a breach of the ceasefire he personally brokered, he also made inaccurate statements about Egypt’s economy and stability instantly universally denounced by the opposition as much as the government.
That is because Egyptians understand that Witkoff’s statements are intended to put pressure on Egypt to accept proposals to settle forcibly displaced Palestinians within Egyptian, Jordanian or any other territory — an idea that is not only illegal but potentially disastrous too. Even more bizarre was Witkoff’s failure to even mention Egypt’s intensive, tireless mediation effort, undertaken alongside Qatar, over 17 months, to save the lives of Palestinians in Gaza and end Israel’s genocidal war on them.
Witkoff expressed gratitude for the Qatari mediation role alone, mentioning neither Egypt nor the reconstruction plan it has championed. Far from being in competition, since the war started Egypt and Qatar have been coordinating closely out of a shared commitment not just to regional peace and stability but also to the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people, topped with the right to self-determination that requires an end to the illegal, racist occupation and the emergence of their own independent state. Witkoff’s position therefore raises questions, especially considering how — only a few days before — he had praised Egypt’s initiative, now known Arab-Islamic plan, which has the backing of Arab, Islamic and African countries, the European Union and Britain.
Hardly two weeks before the interview, Witkoff had personally taken part in an in-depth meeting in Doha to discuss the plan, later remarking that the discussions were promising for both the end of the war in Gaza and the future stability of the region. For no rational reason, now, when asked about possible risks for Middle East stability of the continued war, he declared that Egypt was among the countries that could face internal upheaval if the war continued because of a weak economy and a “restive” population. This followed on the heals of renewed praise for what observers had thought was Trump’s shelved plan to move Palestinians in Gaza to Egypt and Jordan, claiming that the densely populated Strip became uninhabitable following its total destruction in the ongoing war.
Aside from the fact that neither Trump, Witkoff nor any senior US official in the new administration has laid any blame on Israel for causing such destruction, killing over 50,000 Palestinians, displacing, torturing and maiming tens of thousands more, the reality is that there can be no worse cause of upheaval and instability in the region than that extremist Zionist-backed proposal for ethnic cleansing.
Right after the war started, Western pressure mounted on Egypt to allow Palestinians in Gaza to move to northern Sinai, alleging this was necessary on humanitarian grounds, and comparing such a move to Europe’s willingness to host Ukrainian refugees after the war broke out with Russia. Yet, considering Egypt’s involvement in the Palestinian cause dating back to the days of the creation of the Israeli state in 1948, it would have been naïve to expect Egypt to accept such proposal or trust that the same Western nations that enabled Israel’s war crimes against the Palestinians would guarantee that a single displaced Palestinian was able to return to their homeland.
The history of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is all about land and displacement, and Palestinians who have been living under Israeli occupation since 1967 have learned the lesson from their predecessors, forced to leave their hometowns in 1948 as refugees on the false promise that they would be able to return. This is what is known as the Nakba, and neither Egypt nor any Arab country will ever agree to take part in a second Nakba or liquidate the entire Palestinian cause. That would be a crime committed against the Palestinian people, not just a severe injustice that Egypt has vehemently and repeatedly affirmed it would never allow.
As a New York real estate developer with a Jewish background, Witkoff is certainly aware of the history of the conflict following repeated visits to Israel throughout his life. But he obviously had on the developer’s hat, not the honest broker’s. Sadly, he not only backed Israel’s renewed war, seeing it as an opportunity to put pressure on Hamas to accept his offer on the release of Israeli prisoners even if this resulted in the brutal death of hundreds of innocent children and women, but he also indirectly leveraged US military and economic assistance to Egypt in a clear attempt to force Cairo to reconsider its stand on rejecting the illegal displacement of Palestinians, forgetting that Egypt’s principled position on Palestine has never been for sale.
Witkoff’s statements reflect a clear lack of understanding of Egypt’s vital role in the region, and of the depth and strategic ties between Egypt and the United States over the last five decades. His unwelcome statements will not stop Egypt from pushing ahead with its relentless effort to stop the war in Gaza, to save the lives of the Palestinian people and to prevent the entire region from plunging further into war. Hopefully, wisdom will prevail and the new US administration will recognise the reality on the ground, acknowledging the real sources of danger of instability, topped by the Israeli genocide against the Palestinians.
* A version of this article appears in print in the 27 March, 2025 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly
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