Ghaith al-Omari is the Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Foundation Senior Fellow in The Washington Institute's Irwin Levy Family Program on the U.S.-Israel Strategic Relationship.
Articles & Testimony
Cairo and Jerusalem have a shared interest in helping Gaza's long-suffering residents but restraining Hamas.
We are reaching the first anniversary of the 2014 Gaza war. This was the third war between Israel and Hamas in six years, and it lasted 51 days. The gaps between the wars are getting shorter, and the wars are getting longer. If nothing changes, there may be another one. The key to breaking the cycle lies not only in Jerusalem and Gaza City but also in Cairo and Ramallah.
As the largest Arab country and Gaza's southern neighbor, Egypt has historically been a pivotal actor with regard to Gaza, and Egyptian President Abdel Fatah al-Sissi has ended a pattern of previous Egyptian neglect of that border. Cairo has vociferously charged Hamas, the Gaza affiliate of the Muslim Brotherhood, with deadly attacks against Egyptians and launched a systematic campaign to shut down the tunnels used to smuggle goods, weapons and even people from Egypt into Gaza. That should set the stage for a broader initiative...
