Shut the side door tight
When I was a child, an ice-cream and sweets shop was close by my parents’ cake and bread bakery. The backs of our properties were connected with a lane. The lane ran down past the side of Mr. Magdy Massoud’s ice-cream shop. I was friends with Mr. Massoud’s daughter who was the same age as me. They were the only Egyptians in our community during World War 2.
He always left his shop side door open to catch a breeze, and sometimes we children would sneak in quietly and steal a chocolate “Freddo” frog while Mr. Massoud sat in his lounge room behind the shop. When the front door of the shop was opened a little bell rang, but there was no bell on the side door. What we did was wrong and it was a long time before we got caught. But I learnt a lesson: it is no good having a warning on the front door, if the side door is open.
In 2005 Israel withdrew from the Gaza strip. Ever since there has been constant crisis in this area in rocket attacks from Gaza into Israel, in the battle to control Gaza by the Hamas terrorists and more recently in the devastating attacks on Gaza by the Israeli forces.
All of this time the Gaza-Israel border has been closed to both pedestrians, workers, and for the importation of essentials. Gaza is a destroyed, decaying area, without every kind of infrastructure and the means to be self-sufficient, and it is controlled by terrorists.
But while the front and backdoors to Gaza are closed, the side door has remained open, and through tunnels from Gaza into Egypt all the necessities for life have been smuggled, and sick and wounded have been carried into Egypt for treatment. This area was the most heavily bombed by the Israelis who wanted the side door shut tight!
Now billions of dollars are to be poured into Gaza to rebuild its infrastructure and to provide the means for a normal life for the Palestinians who live there. Here’s an idea – why not allow Egypt open access through the side door to provide the expertise to rebuild Gaza? Egypt could redevelop the coastline of Gaza into a world-class tourist destination.
Gazans will never accept Israelis for the development of the Palestinian nation. But Arabs who live in Egypt are racially and linguistically similar and are more likely to be accepted by the Gazans who want to reject the terrorists of Hamas. Gaza and Egypt have long had political and geographic connection.
Egypt has restricted the smuggling through the side door into Gaza but there are reports of bomb-making material (some 70 tons are estimated) being smuggled from Egypt since the end of the Israeli bombing raids in January.
Wouldn’t it be better to have a sanctioned agreement where Egypt takes the lead in rebuilding Gaza, using the world’s donated capital, and doing all of the trade openly through the side door?
