Sisi fears Gaza, for the same reason Mubarak did. It’s not because of the tunnels. The tunnels have always existed. They flourished only because of the Egyptian-Israeli siege. The arms do not flow into Egypt from Gaza; it’s the other way around. Not a single concrete proof was ever given by Sisi’s propagandists or the security services implicating Hamas in any ongoing terror attacks on Egyptian soil.
Rather, Sisi, like Mubarak before him, fears the Palestinians example. The Palestinians have always acted as a radicalizing factor for Egyptians. Dissent is contagious. There is a fine thread connecting the second Palestinian intifada, which erupted in 2000, with Tahrir Square in 2011.
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Well I remember when I was in Gaza in 2010 with Kiaora Gaza, part of the Viva Palestina seige busting campaign, watching on TV the Al Jazeera coverage of student solidarity protests in Egypt. When the army under Mubarak’s orders stormed the universities, and occupied and closed them down. Many of the students being attacked by the soldiers were bearing Palestinian flags.
Unfortunately I couldn’t understand the commentary as it was all in Arabic and when I switched channels to Al Jazeera English, nothing.