Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid’s recently dangled carrot appears attractive on the surface: Egypt takes over administrative and security affairs in Gaza in return for the erasure of its foreign debts.
It is a carrot because Egypt is one of the most indebted countries in the world. Public debt was around $140bn in December, or 90% of Egypt’s gross domestic product (GDP). This week, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) lowered Egypt’s 2025 economic outlook.
Last year, with its debt-to-GDP ratio at 96%, Egypt needed a $55bn loan-and-investment bailout, so the cancellation of its huge debt pile is tempting, but it has not accepted, and nor should it. This is fool’s gold—an Israeli attempt to give its neighbours responsibility for the problems in Gaza that its blitz-like bombing and destruction has created.
True, Lapid’s proposal does not displace millions of Palestinians to clear the way (literally) for US President Donald Trump to create his ‘Middle East Riviera’ (as Trump initially suggested) but it leads to the same result—ridding Israel of its Gaza security problem by dumping it in the region’s lap instead.
An unwanted Strip
Lapid’s suggestion for Gaza, if accepted, would mean that Israel could get away with rendering the territory uninhabitable, then avoid having to deal with the fact that millions of Palestinians can no longer live there. It would also roll the aspiration of a Palestinian state back 15 years at least.
Interestingly, Egypt has ruled Gaza twice before, taking military control of the Strip from 1948-56 and from 1957-67. Yet Egypt’s administration of the Strip during these periods served Egyptian and Palestinian interests. Doing so now would only serve Israel’s.
