Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid presented a plan on Tuesday for post-war governance in Gaza that would see Hamas removed from power and Egypt assume control of the enclave for up to 15 years in exchange for having its foreign debt paid off.
“After the seventh of October 2023, the world needs a new solution for the Gaza Strip,” Lapid told an event held by the neoconservative Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) think tank in Washington.
“Israel cannot allow Hamas to remain in power. The Palestinian Authority is also unwilling or able to administer Gaza in the near future,” he added.
“The solution is Egypt will take responsibility for the management of the Gaza Strip for eight years with an option to extend to 15 years.”
Lapid’s claims that his so-called ‘Egyptian plan’ has Cairo, Africa and the region’s best interest at heart, with him warning that the Egyptian economy “is on the verge of collapse”. Egypt’s foreign debt, the Israeli centrist leader claimed, has surpassed $155 billion and that its diminishing borrowing capacity puts Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi’s leadership at risk.
“This is extremely bad news for all of us,” Lapid said.
“Egypt is a key strategic partner and a trusted ally for nearly 50 years. It is a strong, moderate, and pragmatic state and a central player in the region. President Sisi has long been a force for stability in the Middle East and Africa, and he has been fighting religious extremism for years.”
Lapid added that Egypt’s strength and stability are in everyone’s interest, warning that “the alternative could be catastrophic,” cautioning that “Egypt could collapse, fall back into the hands of the Muslim Brotherhood, or even worse, leading the entire Middle East into a state of chaos and instability, as has happened in the past.”
The former Israeli prime minister proposed that a joint solution to both of these issues would be for “Egypt to take responsibility for administering the Gaza Strip for eight years, with the option to extend it to 15 years, in exchange for the repayment of its foreign debt by the international community and its regional allies.”
The Egyptian Foreign Ministry later on Wednesday responded to inquiries regarding Lapid’s proposal to take charge of the administration of the Gaza Strip for a period of time.
“Any theses or proposals that circumvent the constants of the Egyptian and Arab position, and the sound foundations for dealing with the essence of the conflict related to Israel’s withdrawal from the occupied territories and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state, are rejected and unacceptable,” the ministry spokesman Ambassador Tammam Khalaf said,
“Egypt’s management proposal for the Gaza Strip is one of the half-solutions, which contribute to the renewal of the conflict instead of settling it definitively,” stressing “the organic link between the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, as Palestinian lands representing the territory of the independent Palestinian state, which must be subject to sovereignty and full Palestinian administration.”
Lapid’s comments come as it emerged that Israel is using the gas trade to pressure Egypt over taking in ethnically cleansed Palestinians from Gaza. Tel Aviv blindsided Cairo in a recent meeting with an unexpected demand for a 40% price hike— a move Egyptian officials see as less about economics and more about gaining leverage over Egypt on the question of Gaza.
A senior Egyptian government source confirmed that Cairo rejected the Israeli proposal, and negotiations over the price increase were postponed to a later meeting.
